As our products are becoming smarter, whether that be in the home or workplace, there is an increase in security threats to your devices that could become compromised too. The market in smart devices has recently soared, with industry experts suggesting the global market could be worth £370bn by 2030. With smart doorbells, speakers, locks, security systems and many more, a breach of security in any of these devices could allow a hacker to access an entire home network, personal and sensitive information that could lead to fraud, financial loss and more – making the implementation of security technology more important than ever.

As our products and devices continue to evolve, what about the legislation that is put in place to ensure consumers aren’t exposed to hackers. Which? Has worked with governments to try and fix badly designed and immature smart products that have resulted in consumers being exposed to hackers. It’s a race against the clock to ensure these legislations are in place to keep up with the speed of ‘smart’?  

The problem is, there has previously been little legal requirements surrounding the security of a product, meaning product security is a toss of the coin. The Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022 (PTSI) is a Bill that aims to address important issues around quality control over security standards and covers all simple products that can connect to the internet. The government’s new Spring budget 2023 recently announced they would be making updates via the PSTI to make it easier for full fibre broadband and mobile operators to upgrade, share and deploy new infrastructure. 

Smart technology 

Even though the increase in potential threats will only continue to rise as the intelligence of security does, the good news is that an increase in security technology innovations is rapidly growing, and the news we see every day about security breaches is a key reminder of the importance of the right technology for success. 

New developments continue to shape the future of security technology, introducing new concepts, policies and components which are designed to minimise risk and identify potential threats. However, a security system is only as good as the implementations of it. 

There are typically 2 types of security technology, physical security and cybersecurity. 

Physical security looks to protect buildings and safeguard the equipment inside, keeping the people you don’t want out and authorising those that can have access. Physical security is important for keeping data and security safe. Physical security is becoming smarter and now has the capabilities of connecting with other systems – including cloud-based technology and AI. 

Global changes have also played a part in this shift. Look at the Covid pandemic for example. As organisation moved from a physical office to remote and hybrid, businesses were forced to look at the security they had in place and see if it was intelligent enough to cope with a more online platform, network sharing, cloud storage and more. A recent report found that cybersecurity hacker threats were directly linked to vulnerable physical security, which significantly increased during the pandemic by 85%. 

Cybersecurity has become more prominent in the security industry; capabilities and awareness have greatly improved. Unfortunately, so has the threats and its level of sophistication, with fraud cases being up 70% since 2020. For example, AI and machine learning has become revolutionary when it comes to research and data analytics (look at ChatGPT). However, these tools are also opening the doors to hackers. Cybersecurity is constantly evolving, and businesses need keep up with the trends to avoid becoming a victim of threats. 

The risk associated with smart devices and the wider internet has become parallel to their usage. Our needs have become greater, and these complex systems have an increased chance of being breached. In order to prevent or give the best possible chance of protection, a business must utilise the available technologies and take the right precautions to defend and protect systems.