Many Organizations Unprepared for IoT-Related Security Threats, Poll Finds

About 30 percent of respondents in a poll of more than 220 information security professionals who attended the Black Hat hacker conference nearly a month ago said their organizations are prepared for IoT-related security risks, said security company Tripwire in a Thursday news release. Twenty-seven percent said their organizations weren't prepared, 37 percent said their organizations will soon be prepared and 5 percent weren't concerned about IoT security risks, the company's poll found. Fifty-two percent didn't think their organizations accurately tracked the number of IoT devices on their networks, while 34 percent said their organizations did a good job. Plus, 78 percent said they were concerned about IoT devices being "weaponized" in distributed denial-of-service attacks. Only 11 percent ranked DDoS attacks as one of the top two security threats their organization face. Phishing, cyberespionage, ransomware and insider threats were the other risks that were cited more frequently, Tripwire found. About half of the respondents said IoT devices on their networks will increase by at least 30 percent next year.