US $1.8 billion spending for IoT security

Many companies are using IoT to run their businesses to get faster results and, approaching a big number of people using online networks. At the same time, it puts an institution/company to a higher risk being recognized as a potential prey for cyber-attacks. A survey made by American research and advisory company Gartner shows that 20 percent of world’s organizations were victim of at least one IoT-based attack in last three years. Gartner predicts spending for IoT security will reach US$1.8 billion in 2018, an important increase of 28 percent compare to 2017.

Since May 25th 2018, a new EU privacy regulation, The General Data protection Regulation (GDPR) affected worldwide businesses and all companies collecting personal information from EU citizens, should stick to the new regulations. GDPR is based on eight principal rights: to access, to be forgotten, to data portability, to be informed, to have information corrected, to restrict processing, to object and to be notified, and it brought a big change additionally protecting private information. The companies not respecting the regulations can be fined $20m or 4% of annual global turnover, whichever is higher. The Wall Street reported that 50 million Facebook accounts may have been accessed in a cyber-attack and if it is proved to be in breach of GDPR, the fine could be up to $1.62bn. American data integration company Talend made a GDPR research with 103 companies operating worldwide, and found out that while 98% of subjected companies had updated their privacy policy, 70% failed to return the information upon their customers’ request within 30-days limit. Financial services firms performed the best, but the success rate was still 50%.

Global tourism is seeing a brighter future and Japan is one of the fastest receptive growing countries. The first eight months in 2018 brought almost 2.5 million more international tourist arrivals compare the previous year. In the future, IoT will offer many new services as hotels’ check-ins and entering the room by smartphones, without needing to line at the reception desk, or allowing to personalize the temperature, lightening heaters, wake up calls and other options in the room, offering similar convenience as at home, making additional motivation to revisit the hotel. Possibility to localize a suit-case at the airport, or monitor aircraft or bus parts for maintenance and decrease the possibility of eventual malfunctions or accidents and other upcoming services will contribute to the growth of travel industry. That being said, Japan’s position at the end of the line for incorporating IoT as part of the business development is not a bad thing, considering that for most of the IoTs’ full security protocols are not ready yet, and we know that even one successful cyber-attack might result by ending a company. Everybody recognize the importance of GDPR but the road is long until all companies operating with Europe will be fully equipped for. Offering fast and smart solutions to the customers is needed and brings profit, but safety and security are and should remain as the very fundamental of any business, especially for industries based on people, as tourism is.

Source: Gartner, Statista, WTTC, https://president.jp/articles/-/25982