Security News > 2022 > December > Study: Consumer security savvy is way behind IoT threat landscape

With the rapid expansion of Internet-connected devices, both consumer and industrial, the cyber-threat landscape is growing faster than individuals' ability to keep up.

Comcast's biennial take on consumer cyber health, the 2022 Xfinity Cyber Health Report, found that there are an average of 15 connected devices per household, up 25% from 2020 - with "Power users" having as many as 34.

The poster-child for IoT vulnerabilities might well be the infamous Mirai botnet DDoS attack that in 2016 infected over a half-million IoT devices with factory-set default authentication credentials.

Noopur Davis, chief information security and product privacy officer at Comcast, wrote in the study that the rapid cultural shift to remote and hybrid work and the evolution and growth of IoT has "Continued to blur the lines between our professional and private lives, which - unknowingly to many - create new vulnerabilities and openings for cybercriminals".

Three-quarters of Americans wrongly believe that fewer than 10 attacks hit their home network every month - Comcast reported that security protocols block an average of 23 unique threats per household each month, with the total number of attacks actually landing at three-to-four times that number, as many attacks are repeated.

SEE: Top 5 ways industrial IoT differs from IoT. On the plus side, the study found an improvement in people's general awareness of threats: In the 2020 study, 53% of respondents had heard of phishing, but only 28% believed they could confidently describe what it is.

News URL

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/consumer-security-behind-iot-threat-landscape/