Half of businesses still vulnerable to spam, phishing, IoT hacks

The Internet of Things is growing faster than ever and spreading to new segments and markets. Connected devices are now incorporated into municipal services, not only in industrial and consumer-oriented services.

Water pumps, traffic sensors, smart toys, fitness and health wristbands, surveillance cameras and doorbells are all used to help improve transportation, lighting, safety and daily activities overall. Soon enough, everything around us will connect to the internet and operate from a smartphone or tablet via an app. Even from a remote location.

Yet interoperability is still a top concern for most users, along with security and privacy. These unresolved issues discourage private users and businesses from fully embracing IoT technology. Companies worry that the high number of vulnerabilities in the devices make it easy for hackers to breach their networks.

Considering the number of attackers looking for vulnerabilities in connected devices has increased by 400 percent, and the IoT has turned into a main target for cyberattacks, it is quite strange that as many as 50 percent of companies, according to an AT&T survey, are still exposed to threats like mail spam and phishing because they haven”t taken measures to improve their online security in over three years.

Measures taken by businesses to protect data and cloud storage are not efficient, as neither are current policies supervising cybersecurity. Besides developing strong industry standards, businesses should take measures like restricting access to unauthorized users, especially when proprietary information is involved, enforcing threat analytics to detect traffic changes and keeping a dedicated incident response team.