It ’ s not just traditional endpoints such as PCs , laptops , phones and tablets that pose a threat to networks . With the internet of things finding purchase in many and varied industries , from manufacturing to restaurants and even people ’ s homes , their sometimes unsecured nature is proving a considerable headache for those interested in cybersecurity .

According to a report from EY , “ IoT is actually [ a ] medium of interconnection for people – and because human communication is mediated by machines and is more and more indirect , there is a deeply rooted security problem with the possibility of impersonation , identity theft , hacking and , in general , cyber threats .”

It ’ s a problem that is only growing in scale . Last year , Gartner predicted there would be 5.8 billion enterprise and automotive IoT endpoints in use in 2020 , up 21 % from 2019 , with utilities the biggest market , followed by government and building automation . What those three segments share is their highly essential nature .

“ Overall , end users will need to prepare to address an environment where the business units will increasingly buy IoT-enabled assets without policies for support , data ownership or integration into existing business applications ,” said Alfonso Velosa , research vice president at Gartner .

Endpoints , then , represent a highly changeable and fast evolving part of the cybersecurity landscape , as well as one of the most sensitive . With remote working and the inexorable march of IoT presenting new endpoint vulnerabilities , cybersecurity professionals have got their hands full ensuring that the devices we use to connect to networks don ’ t end up compromising them .

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