ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--More than half (59%) of Asia-Pacific organizations plan to capitalize on the increase of connected devices known as the “Internet of Things.” Already, 39% have been impacted by this trend, according to the IT professionals surveyed in ISACA’s 2013 IT Risk/Reward Barometer.
Of the IT professionals surveyed in the Asia-Pacific region, 35% report that their enterprises have greater access to information due to the Internet of Things, 32% improved services, and 24% increased customer satisfaction and employee productivity.
Conducted by ISACA, a global association of 110,000 IT security, assurance, governance and risk professionals, the IT Risk/Reward Barometer asked 2,013 IT professionals who are members of ISACA—including 343 from the Asia-Pacific region—about the risks and rewards of key trends.
The Internet of Things includes devices, sensors, cars, meters and other items that are connected to the Internet and to each other. Fifty billion devices are expected to be connected to the Internet by 2020.*
Respondents from Asia-Pacific identified significant benefits and risks from the Internet of Things. “Increased security threats” was the biggest governance concern to 38% of IT professionals. Data privacy was a top concern for 32%, followed by identity and access, which are most troubling to 8% of respondents.
Half of respondents in Asia-Pacific (50%) believe greater Internet connectivity is of more benefit than risk to consumers, though respondents recognize some risk to consumers—particularly not knowing who has access to the information being collected (40%) and not knowing how it is used (28%).
“The Internet of Things will grow and organizations need to develop strategies to ensure they benefit from connected devices,” said Tony Hayes, CGEIT, International President of ISACA. “However, increased connectivity also opens up security risks. Organizations also need to determine how they will protect the data.”
5 Steps to Being Agile
ISACA recommends five steps for enterprises to be agile in the Internet of Things era:
1. Act quickly; enterprises cannot afford to be reactive.
2. Govern the initiative to ensure that data remain secure and risks are managed.
3. Identify expected benefits and how to measure them.
4. Leverage internal technology steering committee to communicate benefits to the board.
5. Embrace creativity and encourage innovation.
For survey results, visit http://www.isaca.org/risk-reward-barometer.
About the 2013 IT Risk/Reward Barometer
Conducted by ISACA, a global association of 110,000 IT security, assurance, risk and governance professionals, the Barometer polls thousands of business and IT professionals and consumers worldwide to uncover attitudes and behaviours about essential technologies and information, and the trade-offs people make to balance risk and reward. The study is based on September 2013 online polling of 2,013 ISACA members from 110 countries. A total of 64 Australian and New Zealand IT professionals contributed to the survey. Additional online surveys were fielded by M/A/R/C Research among 1,216 consumers in the US, 1,001 consumers in India, and 1,001 consumers in Mexico. The US survey ran 16–18 September 2013, and the India and Mexico surveys ran 25 September–5 October 2013. At a 90% confidence level, the margin of error for each individual country sample is +/- 2.8 percent. A UK survey of 1,000 employed consumers was conducted by OnePoll on 2 October 2013 with a margin of error of +/- 3.9 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
About ISACA
With 110,000 constituents worldwide, ISACA® (www.isaca.org) helps business and IT leaders manage value and risk related to information and technology.
*Cisco: http://blogs.cisco.com/news/cisco-connections-counter/
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