2020 Unit 42 IoT Threat Report

According to a 2019 Gartner report, “By the end of 2019, 4.8 billion [IoT] endpoints are expected to be in use, up 21.5% from 2018.” While the internet of things (IoT) opens the door for innovative new approaches and service  in all industries, it also presents new cybersecurity risks. To evaluate the current state of the IoT threat landscape, the Unit 42 threat intelligence team analyzed security issues throughout 2018 and 2019 with the Palo Alto Networks IoT security product, Zingbox®, spanning 1.2 million IoT devices in thousands of physical locations across enterprise IT and healthcare organizations in the United States. We found that the general security posture of IoT devices is declining, leaving organizations vulnerable to new IoT-targeted malware as well as older attack techniques that IT teams have long forgotten. This report details the scope of the IoT threat landscape, which IoT devices are most susceptible, top IoT threats, and actionable next steps to immediately reduce IoT risk.