IT research and advisory company Gartner says that cybersecurity professionals will become increasingly important as the Internet of Things explodes over the next few years. The company’s analysts presented their arguments at this week’s Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando, Florida.
The company’s overall argument is about reframing how IT security is conceptualized. In a press release, Gartner argues that the traditional model of confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) “isn’t enough” to manage the “digital explosion” that is seeing increasing amounts of data – and everyday devices comprising the Internet of Things – go online.
Many security experts agree on that point. Looking for a more adaptable approach, Gartner suggests that while securing “core” IT infrastructure like laptops, servers, and so on, remains important, IT security is now in a “race to the edge,” the edge being those new and often peripheral access points where valuable data is being transmitted and stored.
The other major concern in the “digital explosion,” Gartner says, is openness and transparency, which consumers are increasingly demanding from businesses. Presumably, this desire for openness and transparency relates to consumers’ growing concern over privacy, which may cause them to gravitate toward companies that are up-front about how they handle user data. To that end, Apple is already getting into position, with CEO Tim Cook having emphasized in a recent interview the importance of privacy in Apple products and how they ensure user data remains out of the hands of hackers and overreaching government officials.
But security, it would seem, remains paramount, with Gartner asserting that by 2018, over 20 percent of all enterprises will use IT security services specializing in the IoT. And all of this is good news for cybersecurity professionals, who “are the new guardians of big changes in the organization,” says Gartner VP Christian Byrnes.
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