Gartner: IoT represents unprecedented challenge for IT security experts

Dive Brief:

Gartner and other firms predict that we're moving toward "the universal connectivity of everything,” Information World reported.
But the emergence of IoT also means unprecedented new challenges for IT security professionals.
As a result, IoT has the potential to become a safety issue for some security professionals, says Gartner.

Dive Insight:

The emergence of IoT means security professionals will have to shift their focus to protecting the availability of real-time, event-driven systems, said Gartner analyst Christian Byrnes, adding that the impact of such a shift cannot be overestimated.

"In many industries, human life is going to be at risk," says Byrnes. "This is inherently different from anything we've had to protect in the past."

As more things are connected via sensors, physical security will be merged with cyber security, giving security professionals and CIOs new areas of responsibility.

Byrnes says security practitioners should start preparing now for a time where everything is connected and everything becomes a potential vulnerability.

Gartner estimates the IoT market will consist of 25 billion devices by 2020.