By 2026, IoT connections will exceed 23 billion across all major IoT markets. Almost all those connections will be faced with incessant and constantly evolving cyber-threats, forcing implementers and IoT vendors to embrace new digital security options to protect managed fleets and connected assets. Secure device authentication currently stands among the top-tier investment priorities for key IoT markets. Global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research, expects that hardware-focused IoT authentication services will reach US$8.4 billion in revenues by 2026.
“There are several key technologies revolving around authentication security that currently transform the IoT device value chain. Chief elements among them revolve around IoT identity issuance, provisioning, authentication, encryption key lifecycle management, access management, and attestation,” explains Dimitrios Pavlakis, Industry Analyst at ABI Research. These are the prime focus of IoT vendors who capitalize on the emerging threat horizon to better position their services and explore new IoT monetization models.
“As it currently stands, the IoT is not a secure place for future deployments and both IoT players and digital security vendors are aware of that,” comments Pavlakis. “The good news is that the recent change in thinking has caused a noticeable mentality shift and investment surge for secure authentication technologies across the IoT ecosystem; the bad news is that this also gives rise to many IoT management offerings with questionable levels of security and intelligence.”
IoT authentication services need to consider a plethora of variables, sharing both operational and connectivity as well as security characteristics. “Just because cybersecurity investments need to enter deeper into the IoT deployment equation does not mean that operational variables will be left unaccounted,” explains Pavlakis. “Bandwidth capacity, connectivity requirements, operational specifications, and device heterogeneity, digital footprint and processing power, edge-cloud dependencies, telemetry and intelligence are all key factors that need to be addressed to obtain a sustainable growth for the IoT going forward.”
Many IoT security vendors are taking advantage of the recent IoT investment surge to increase their market footprint and deliver security-first authentication and management services for the IoT supported by a multitude of flexible pricing models. Market leaders and innovative companies offering IoT security services operating in different areas of the IoT value chain include Intel, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Entrust Datacard, Rambus, Data I/O, and Globalsign.
These findings are from ABI Research’s Device Authentication in IoT technology analysis report.