Utimaco, a global provider of IT security solutions, has released new consumer research that indicates a low level of trust around Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This has highlighted the need for more education from the industry into how smart devices are secured with the latest digital security solutions.
The new whitepaper, Circles of Trust 2023: Exploring Consumer Trust in the Digital Society, looks at how consumers view trust in an increasingly digital world. The 2023 survey expanded the geographical scope from Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom to include thousands of consumers from Mexico, the USA, and Singapore, focusing on attitudes towards the use and security of IoT technology and smart cities.
The research suggests a notable difference between responses from countries with the highest and lowest GDP per capita and those in the center of the GDP per capita distribution. The poorest and richest countries showed the most enthusiasm about digital technology in their lives and the least concern about security (though in the case of the US, they also reported much higher levels of cybercrime than other countries).
IoT, encompassing a wide range of technologies from next-generation robotics systems in factories to smart light bulbs, is expected to grow to $662 billion by the end of this year. The research found several serious stumbling blocks to widespread trust in IoT technology among consumers. It begins with only 24% believing that they can define “Internet of Things.” That suggests that this term, which is widely used in the industry and has been for many years, has not found its way into the minds of consumers. On a country level, Singapore had the highest level of respondents who believed that they could define the term (33%) while the UK had the lowest (20%).
This pattern repeated when consumers were asked if they used IoT technology, where 26% globally said that they did. When asked the same question using the term “smart technology”, that number jumped to 38% and 53% in Mexico. When asked if they used specific IoT/Smart devices, the research found that the majority of those surveyed across all countries used at least one type of smart device: 61% owned a Smart TV, and 52% used a virtual assistant like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home.
The report argues that these results point to a need to communicate better with the general public and to secure IoT and smart city digital infrastructure with the latest generation of digital security solutions.
“We’re living in an increasingly digital world with more connected and smart devices that need to be secured,” said Utimaco CEO Stefan Auerbach. “The results of our Circles of Trust whitepaper show that more work is needed to create trust and reassurance for consumers and their connected devices.”
