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Senior IT Leaders Express Concern About Identity, Access and the Internet of Things

Senior IT Leaders Express Concern About Identity, Access and the Internet of Things

Senior IT Leaders Express Concern About Identity, Access and the Internet of ThingsA new survey commissioned Globalsign, the security division of the Tokyo-based GMO Internet Group, and carried out by market research firm Vanson Bourne has found widespread fear of the consequences of an unsecured Internet of Everything, which combines traditional, human-initiated web acccess with the Internet of Things (IoT), with a special tremor of terror reserved for Identity and Access Management failures. Specifically, according to the press release, the independent survey, which was conducted in late January of 2015, “shows that senior IT decision makers in both the US and the United Kingdom are strongly concerned about their organizations’ ability to identify and handle access management as the Internet of Things brings more external communities and devices in contact with the corporate network.”

About 90% of those senior IT execs, to be specific, expressed some level of concern at organizations with 1000 people or more. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), people working from home, and smart wearables, which offer new conduits into the heart of corporate networks were all worry points. Smart wearables can be considered part of the IoT, in that they “talk” with other devices without the user consciously prompting it to do so. US execs tended to be a lot more worried than their UK counterparts, however, as 63% of the American IT execs surveyed expressed “extreme” or “strong” concern, vs only 23% of UK respondents. Maybe the Brits feel better prepared, or maybe it’s just the whole Churchillian stiff upper lip thing going on.

Regardless of the difference in attitude by country, firm size did not affect attitudes, according to the press release, with the survey separating out two groups by size: 1000-3000 people organizations, and 3000+. Vertical did affect attitudes, however, with those Finance expressing twice the level of concern as their peers in manufacturing, retail, or “other industries.”

GlobalSign offers easy-to deploy Identity Relationship and Access Management (IRAM) solutions for the enterprise, enabling new e-services and secure interactions, onsite or in the cloud.

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