Nearly three-quarters of Dutch people do not take IoT safety measures

Nearly three-quarters of Dutch people do not take IoT safety measures

27-02-2018 09:00:00

There isn't an English translation for this article yetNo less than 92 percent of the Dutch people has one or more Internet of Things (IoT)-device in their home. Devices that are connected to the internet are attractive for cybercriminals. 82 percent of the Dutch people admits to knowing that devices that are connected to the internet can be hacked. Despite that, almost three quarters (71%) takes no measures against cybercrime for their IoT-devices. This is a result from research among 1.012 Dutch people with office jobs by BIT, specialist in green colocation, internet connections, managed hosting and outsourcing. The research results have been bundled and presented in the report ‘Internet Eigenwijs 2017 ‘

Wido Potters, Manager Support & Sales at BIT: “It is worrying that people take virtually no measures to protect their IoT-devices. This may also damage other people on the internet. It is not uncommon that insecure IoT-devices are used for big DDoS-attacks. The second a hacker has access to, for example, a security camera that is connected to the internet, it can be used in a network of different devices to perform a large scale attack.”

Get into IoT-security risks

The research shows that 43 percent of the Dutch people has little knowledge on the security risks of connecting devices to the internet. One in five people assumes that the manufacturer has taken care of this for them, 12 percent thinks there are no risks at all and 11 percent thinks they are not at risk themselves. Out of the 57 percent that actually knows something about the security risks, only 29 percent indicates to have taken measures themselves or with a third party to protect their devices. 

Potters: “In practice we see that there are no extra security measures for the IoT-devices in the workplace. But more and more devices are connected to the network without thought about the security risks. That is why it is crucially important to create awareness among employees. Inform them of the dangers and give them some stepping stones. The risks are large, even if the measures to protect against them can be very simple. Think about performing updates and using strong passwords. Next to creating awareness among employees, I feel that some responsibility should be placed with the manufacturers and retailers of IoT-devices. They can provide some security for users who are not knowledgeable about this.”

Want to know more about the research results? Download the report ‘Internet Eigenwijs 2017’ here: https://www.bit.nl/bit-onderzoeksrapport-2017.