REDWOOD CITY, Calif.,
June 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Avast
(LSE:AVST), a global leader in digital security products, in
collaboration with Stanford
University, has uncovered that about 40 percent of
households across the globe now contain at least one IoT device. In
North America, that number is
almost double, at 66 percent, bringing with it an associated growth
in cybersecurity risks.
The findings have been published in a new research paper, being
presented at the Usenix Security Conference 2019, "All Things
Considered: An Analysis of IoT Devices on Home
Networks."
The research is the largest global study to date examining the
state of IoT devices. Avast scanned 83 million IoT devices in 16
million homes worldwide to understand the distribution and security
profile of IoT devices by type and manufacturer. The findings were
then validated and analyzed by research teams at Avast and
Stanford University.
"The security community has long discussed the problems
associated with emerging IoT devices," said Zakir Durumeric,
assistant professor of computer science at Stanford University. "Unfortunately, these devices
have remained hidden behind home routers and we've had little
large-scale data on the types of devices deployed in actual homes.
This data helps us shed light on the global emergence of IoT and
types of the security problems present in the devices real users
own."
The research reveals a complex picture of the IoT ecosystem and
subsequent cybersecurity challenges in homes across the world. Key
findings include:
- North America has the highest
density of IoT devices of any region, with 66% of homes possessing
at least one IoT device, compared to the global average of
40%.
- Even with over 14,000 IoT manufacturers worldwide, 94% of all
IoT devices are manufactured by just 100 vendors.
- Obsolete protocols like FTP and Telnet are still used by
millions of devices; over 7% of all IoT devices still use these
protocols, making them especially vulnerable.
Users contributed data to the study using Avast's popular
Wi-Fi Inspector, which scans home networks for
vulnerabilities and identifies potential security issues that open
the door to threats. This feature checks the status of your
network, devices connected to the network, and router settings.
Wi-Fi Inspector helps secure your network to prevent attackers from
accessing it and misusing personal data.
Distribution of IoT vendors around the globe
The paper further explored the distribution of global IoT
vendors. While there is a very long tail of over 14,000 global IoT
vendors, market dominance is limited to only a few.
"A key finding of this paper is that 94% of the home IoT devices
were made by fewer than 100 vendors, and half are made by just ten
vendors," says Rajarshi Gupta, Head
of AI at Avast. "This puts these manufacturers in a unique position
to ensure that consumers have access to devices with strong privacy
and security by design."
By hardening these devices against unwanted access,
manufacturers can help prevent bad actors from compromising these
devices for spying or denial of service attacks.
Significant security risks not being addressed
As part of the study, Avast identified that a significant number
of devices use obsolete protocols such as Telnet and FTP. Seven
percent of all IoT devices support one of these
protocols.
This is also the case for 15% of home routers, which act as a
gateway into the home network. This is a serious issue as when
routers have weak credentials they can open up other devices and
potentially entire homes to an attack.
There is little reason for IoT devices to support Telnet in
2019. Yet, the research shows that surveillance devices and routers
consistently support the protocol. Surveillance devices have the
weakest Telnet profile, along with routers and printers. This
aligns with historical evidence such as the role of Telnet in the
Mirai botnet attacks that suggests these kinds of devices are both
numerous and easy to compromise.
Findings from the full paper: All Things Considered: An
Analysis of IoT Devices on Home Networks, can be found
here.
About Avast
Avast (LSE: AVST) is the global leader in
digital security products. With over 400 million users online,
Avast offers products under the Avast and AVG brands that protect
people from threats on the internet and the evolving IoT threat
landscape. The company's threat detection network is among the most
advanced in the world, using machine learning and artificial
intelligence technologies to detect and stop threats in real time.
Avast digital security products for Mobile, PC or Mac are
top-ranked and certified by VB100, AV-Comparatives, AV-Test,
OPSWAT, West Coast Labs and others. Visit: www.avast.com.
Media Contact:
pr@avast.com
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SOURCE Avast