Security Concerns Hurting Plans to Buy Smart Home Products, Says Parks

Broadband homes that don’t intend to buy a smart home device due to security and privacy concerns jumped from 21 percent in Q1 2017 to 32 percent this Q1, Parks Associates blogged Wednesday. A quarter of U.S. broadband households strongly agree it’s impossible to keep their personal data away from unauthorized users, said the researcher. Consumers own an average of 8.6 connected CE products, up 87 percent since 2010, said analyst Chris O’Dell, noting that connected devices using cloud-based servers can provide easy targets for hackers. A Parks report on blockchain for connected home and entertainment said the technology can help IoT providers create a more secure and efficient network in smart home, digital media, connected health and energy. “A hacker trying to gain unauthorized access to IoT devices on a blockchain-powered network would have to break into a majority of the network’s nodes to gain controllable access to the system, essentially needing an entire army of hackers,” said O’Dell. Research also showed more than 60 percent of data-sensitive households don't trust companies that have their data to keep it safe, and 80 percent of data-sensitive households don't believe they get much in return for sharing their data.