Security: Technical and Business Challenges to Building Trust
The IoT faces a number of technical challenges in achieving economic value in the next 10 years. According to the survey results, the top three most challenging items are lengthy and complex software and product development cycles (60%), porting software to newer and more performant hardware (55%), and achieving the right level of performance (53%).
In addition to these technical challenges, businesses in the IoT industry also face major business challenges that hinder their ability to achieve more economic value in the next decade. The survey results show that the most significant business challenge is ensuring the security of products from development through to end of life (57%). This challenge is viewed as “very challenging” by OEM respondents compared to silicon providers by a ratio of 1.3:1. Other business challenges include slowed global supply chains and shipments (55%), new laws and regulations (55%), delayed access to the newest hardware and IoT technologies (53%), and lack of certification and standardization to enhance security and streamline compatibility (53%).
Ensuring security and establishing trust in IoT products is critical to the industry's future success. The survey shows that a high level of concern exists in both the consumer and industrial markets regarding reputational damage if something goes wrong.
Consumers place a higher priority on product liability, legal ramifications, fines, and product recalls, while industrial respondents value reduced costs more than developers.
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The survey also reveals that having security and trust in products positively impacts a company's bottom line in often intangible ways. For example, secure devices and systems increase the likelihood that people will trust the vendor and buy products (46%). Trust helps products scale in the market and ship greater quantities (41%). In addition, security benefits are a high priority for organizations, with 91% of respondents indicating that customers, end users, or service providers are demanding secure products, as cyber hacking headlines proliferate.
Two important words underpin the drive to more-secure devices and systems: Compatibility and collaboration. Security only scales off the back of compatible, open standards everyone can design around. Scale also doesn't happen without the industry collaborating around standards and frameworks in ways that benefit everyone. This has been a multi-year effort that continues to pick up steam. For instance, industry standards such as SystemReady and PSA Certified are viewed as valuable by a large majority of respondents.
The survey makes clear that the IoT industry must prioritize security and trust in its products to ensure future success. Addressing technical challenges such as lengthy and complex software and product development cycles, porting software, and achieving the right level of performance, along with business challenges such as ensuring security, complying with regulations, and streamlining compatibility through certification and standardization, are essential to achieve more economic value in the next 10 years.
To me, security needs to be, a part of the developers workflow, specifically when it comes to devices connected to the cloud.
