• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, June 2, 2016

Security issues around the Internet of Things are not going away anytime soon, if ever.

Products don’t have adequate security and neither do people, at least in the eyes of security experts.

Almost half (47%) of security executives estimate that fewer than 10% of IoT products are designed with adequate security, according to a survey of 129 senior security executives conducted by IOActive, a security services company.

And a majority (70%) say that fewer than a quarter of IoT products have adequate security designed into them.

Of the biggest challenges facing IoT security, the lack of it in products tops the list. Here are the challenges seen by security executives:

• 72% -- Security not adequately designed into products
• 63% -- Uneducated users or user error
• 59% -- Data privacy

And educating the public may not be enough to solve the security issues.

A large majority (83%) of the security execs surveyed say that public disclosure of vulnerabilities is not enough and that some form of regulatory action would be more effective in improving product security.

All of this matters a lot to marketing and advertising, since all that messaging will be transiting through those connected devices the security executives say are insecure.

And if there is an issue, the brand or marketing entity involved is likely to get the same or even more public criticism than the device maker after the fact.

The MediaPost IoT Marketing Forum is being held Aug. 3 in New York. Check it out here