New research from Extreme Networks has revealed that more IoT devices are making their way to the enterprise but organizations still remain highly vulnerable to IoT-based attacks.
The firm surveyed 540 IT professionals across industries in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific to compile its report which found that 84 percent of organizations currently have IoT devices on their corporate networks.
Of those organizations which have deployed IoT devices on their networks, 70 percent are aware of either successful or attempted hacks though more than half do not employ security measures beyond default passwords.
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Extreme Networks' report also found 9 out of 10 IT professionals are not confident that their network is secured against cyberattacks or breaches. IT professionals working in the financial services industry were the most concerned about security with 89 percent saying they are not confident that their networks have proper security followed by those in the healthcare industry (88%) and professional services (86%).
Increased IoT adoption
One of the main reasons that IoT-based attacks have increased is due to increased global IoT adoption which has quickly expanded the attack surface. The survey found that 83 percent of organizations in EMEA are now deploying IoT devices compared to 85 percent in North America.
Director of product marketing at Extreme Networks, David Coleman provided further insight on the report's findings in a press release, saying:
"Enterprise adoption of IoT, coupled with the fast rise of cloud and edge computing, is massively expanding the attack surface. But the single greatest cybersecurity threat today is inertia. This data shows that across sectors, IT professionals are not confident in their own network security. Yet so many organizations still rely on the same legacy security tools they've been using for decades. It's critical for enterprises to demand multi-layered network security solutions purpose-built for the modern, hybrid enterprise."
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