A Consumer/Professional Split on IoT Security
One of the main takeaways of the new survey is that consumer confidence in the IoT is dropping. In fact, consumers are having an increasingly hard time identifying IoT devices at all. Only 73 percent of U.S. consumers believe they’re knowledgeable in identifying IoT devices, a full 10 percent drop from 2015.
Even worse is the number of consumers that can identify IoT devices enhanced with AR—only 43 percent report confidence in doing so. However, despite being unsure of what these devices are, 77 percent of consumers are worried that AR-enhanced IoT devices may make them more personally vulnerable to a privacy breach.
Despite their concerns, 60 percent of employed U.S. consumers agree that AR applications could improve their lives and make it easier to do their jobs. The applications they saw as being the most beneficial include training guides and retail and healthcare geolocation for personal use and safety guides and product demonstrations for work purposes.
IT and cyber security professionals disagree with the consumer optimism for AR, with 67 percent being unsure that the benefits of AR outweigh the risks. The professional survey results further indicate that the business world is still in the infancy stage of AR adoption, as 37 percent of organizations have not used AR applications and have no plans to do so in 2017.
The study breaks down the key reasons that AR has yet to be embraced in the professional world. The top barriers to adoption are insufficient return on investment (18 percent), security concerns (18 percent), insufficient budget (13 percent) and lack of skills/knowledge (11 percent).
Making Way for AR
Although AR adoption has been slow, AR and virtual reality (VR) have truly massive potential. Goldman Sachs has estimated that the AR/VR hardware and software market will grow to $80 billion by 2025. If this sounds incredible, just think back to July when Pokémon Go players swarmed the streets like a horde of AR zombies.
“With the proliferation of IoT-enabled devices and the drive to provide enhanced user experiences, IoT and AR have the power to become a source of unprecedented value and opportunity, as well as significant risk,” said Rob Clyde, an ISACA board director. “Individuals and enterprises should focus on rapidly getting up to speed on these technologies while learning how to manage risk so they do not compromise their company’s ability to innovate.”
ISACA offers the following recommendations for enterprises looking to realize the benefits of AR:
- Extend social media monitoring to AR platforms. Leverage and extend current social media policies and monitoring to AR platforms.
- Consider how AR can improve your business. Training, diagnostics and marketing are three areas with particularly strong potential.
- Review your governance framework and update your policies. Incorporate use of AR as part of the business into organizational policies and procedures—including BYOD (bring your own device) and privacy policies.
- Build security into every part of the process. Security is a crucial component of AR initiatives that helps ensure confidence in the data.
You can view the full IT Risk/Reward Barometer results here. For an example of AR applications, read “Trimble Launches SketchUp Viewer Mixed Reality Solution for Microsoft HoloLens.”