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Businesses are at risk from the growth of internet-connected devices because every sensor, camera, building controller, medical device, industrial gateway and smart appliance adds software, credentials, data flows and maintenance obligations to the environment. The main danger is not that every IoT product will be hacked. It is that organizations often cannot say exactly which devices they have, who owns them, how they are exposed, or when their software support ends. That blind spot can turn a neglected device into a route for disruption, fraud, privacy loss or attacks on other systems.
NIST describes IoT as different from conventional IT because devices vary widely, interact with the physical world and create both cybersecurity and privacy risks across their lifecycles. See NIST IR 8228.
What makes IoT devices a business risk?
IoT products are often inexpensive, purpose-built and resource-constrained. Some have limited security features, weak update processes or unclear administrative ownership. A vulnerability may remain exploitable when a supplier stops issuing firmware or an organization does not apply an available update. NIST’s IoT practice guide explains that an internet-connected vulnerable device can be recruited into a botnet or used as an entry point into other systems (NIST SP 1800-15).
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Unknown inventory and ownership
Facilities teams, contractors, vendors and individual departments may install connected equipment outside the normal IT purchasing process. NIST warns that organizations may not know how many IoT devices are already in use. Without an owner, nobody is clearly responsible for credentials, patches, logs, incident response or retirement.
Internet exposure and misconfiguration
Default credentials, unnecessary remote administration, open management interfaces and outdated software can expose devices directly to the internet. CISA’s Internet Exposure Reduction Guidance (June 4, 2025) specifically includes IIoT, SCADA, ICS and remote-access systems when urging organizations to find exposed assets.
Lateral movement and botnets
A compromised camera, controller or gateway may be used to attack external targets, consume bandwidth or provide a foothold for movement toward business systems. Network segmentation and traffic restrictions reduce what a compromised device can reach. In NIST’s MUD approach, the network allows only communications required for the device’s intended function and blocks other traffic.
Operational, commercial and privacy consequences
- Availability: DDoS or device failure can make customer-facing services unreachable, causing revenue loss, contractual or liability exposure and reputational damage.
- Operations: In industrial or building environments, loss of visibility or control can affect physical processes. Safety and availability consequences must be assessed for the specific system; no general incident rate or impact figure is established here.
- Privacy: IoT data can reveal people, locations, behavior or business activity. Ask what is collected, where it is sent, who can access it, how long it is retained and what happens when a supplier relationship ends.
How can a business find unknown IoT devices?
- Search every relevant network. Include corporate, facilities, guest, wireless, laboratory and operational networks, as well as vendor-managed connections.
- Combine records with discovery. Reconcile purchasing and facilities records with network-device data, DHCP and authentication logs, wireless-controller information, vulnerability scans and cloud or supplier inventories.
- Validate internet exposure. Use authorized scanning and web-based asset-discovery methods recommended by CISA. Confirm that a discovered address belongs to the organization before changing or testing it.
- Assign accountability. Record a business owner and technical custodian for each device. A vendor-operated device still needs an internal owner.
- Keep the record usable. Update it when equipment is acquired, moved, reconfigured, transferred to a supplier or retired.
At minimum, record the following:
- manufacturer, model, serial number and firmware or software version;
- purpose, physical location, business owner and support contact;
- network segment, internet reachability and remote-management path;
- data collected, destinations, retention and access roles;
- supplier, contract end date, update method and stated support end date;
- replacement, isolation and secure-erasure plan.
Which IoT exposures should be fixed first?
Prioritize by combining reachability, weakness, business criticality and recoverability rather than by device count alone.
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| Priority signal | Why it matters | Immediate action |
|---|---|---|
| Publicly reachable management or service | Attackers can attempt exploitation without first accessing the internal network. | Remove unnecessary exposure; restrict administration to approved paths. |
| Default, shared or weak credentials | Known credentials make automated compromise easier. | Set unique strong credentials, enable supported multifactor authentication and disable unused accounts. |
| Unsupported or unpatchable firmware | Known flaws may remain permanently exploitable. | Replace, isolate or place behind tightly restricted controls. |
| Connection to sensitive systems | A compromised device has a more valuable route for lateral movement. | Segment it and permit only required destinations and protocols. |
| High-value or safety-relevant function | Outage or manipulation may have disproportionate operational consequences. | Use an owner-approved response plan and test recovery without unsafe changes. |
ENISA’s Threat Landscape 2024 notes that the Mozi botnet continued using vulnerabilities that were already eight years old. Device age is therefore not a reason to stop monitoring; old flaws remain useful to attackers.
How should a business secure IoT devices on its network?
1. Remove unnecessary reachability
Do not expose a device or its administration interface to the public internet unless there is a documented business need and compensating control. Restrict remote access through approved gateways, private connectivity or tightly scoped management networks.
2. Limit device communications
Use segmentation, firewall rules, access-control policies and egress filtering so a device can communicate only with required services. NIST describes the benefit of MUD this way: “When MUD is used, the network will automatically permit the IoT device to send and receive only the traffic it requires to perform as intended, and the network will prohibit all other communication with the device, thereby increasing the device’s resilience to network-based attacks.” MUD examples in NIST SP 1800-15 are demonstrations, not a product endorsement.
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3. Harden identity and configuration
Change default passwords before connection, use unique credentials, remove unused services and accounts, encrypt management traffic where supported, and document configuration changes. Do not assume a device supports modern authentication; treat that limitation as a procurement and isolation concern.
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4. Patch, monitor and respond
Subscribe to supplier advisories, test and deploy firmware updates, track remediation deadlines and collect logs where the device supports them. Alert on unexpected destinations, authentication failures, configuration changes, traffic spikes and communication outside the device’s normal profile. Include IoT devices in incident-response playbooks, backup planning and recovery exercises.
5. Protect data throughout the lifecycle
Minimize collection, restrict access, verify supplier processing locations and retention, and require secure export and deletion when service ends. Privacy review belongs before deployment, not only after an incident.
What should procurement require from IoT manufacturers?
Security begins before installation. NIST’s IR 8259 Rev. 1 (April 2026) says: “Manufacturers can help their customers by improving the securability of their IoT products by providing necessary cybersecurity functionality and by providing customers with the cybersecurity-related information they need.”
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- How are firmware and security updates delivered, authenticated and installed?
- What is the minimum and expected support period, and how is end of support announced?
- Which authentication, encryption, logging, secure-boot and configuration controls are supported?
- How are vulnerabilities reported, triaged and disclosed?
- What inventory, data-flow, API and network-requirement documentation is supplied?
- Can the business export, return or securely erase its data when the contract ends?
- Can the product be replaced without losing essential records or interrupting a critical process?
Products that cannot be patched or isolated should not be connected to sensitive networks without a documented exception, owner and retirement date.
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How should businesses compare IoT security approaches?
| Decision axis | Questions to ask |
|---|---|
| Visibility | Can the organization identify the device, owner, software version and communications? |
| Lifecycle | Are updates available, tested and supported for the planned service life? |
| Identity and configuration | Can default credentials be removed and secure settings enforced? |
| Isolation | Can access be segmented and limited to required destinations? |
| Monitoring | Do logs and alerts integrate with existing security operations? |
| Privacy | Are collection, processing, retention, access and deletion documented? |
| Supplier transparency | Are vulnerability contacts, support dates and technical requirements clear? |
| Operational fit | Can controls be applied without unsafe downtime or loss of process visibility? |
| Ongoing cost | What staff time, licenses, assessments, replacements and recovery costs continue after purchase? |
The right design depends on the organization’s infrastructure, risk tolerance, device criticality and operational constraints. A qualified IoT or OT security assessment can help when internal teams cannot reliably discover or evaluate industrial equipment; verify the provider’s expertise, scope and geography before engagement.
What the historical numbers do—and do not—show
NIST’s 2025 IoT infrastructure report recounts that the 2016 Mirai botnet infected more than 600,000 devices. That is a historical incident figure, not a current count of vulnerable business devices. There is no reliable, attributable statistic establishing what percentage of businesses are currently “at risk” from IoT devices, so a universal percentage would be misleading. A 2024 NIST IoT Advisory Board report also discusses market concentration, including a 64% figure for the six largest IoT module companies being Chinese companies; that claim concerns supply-chain and national-security considerations, not the rate of cybersecurity incidents. See the report at NIST’s 2025 IoT infrastructure report and the 2024 NIST IoT Advisory Board report.
The Bottom Line
Businesses reduce IoT risk by treating connected equipment as managed infrastructure: discover every device, assign ownership, remove unnecessary internet exposure, restrict communications, patch while supported, monitor for abnormal behavior and buy only products with a credible security and data-lifecycle commitment.
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