Security has been top of mind with most executives of leading embedded suppliers who we spoke to in the past year. This should come as little surprise given the growing awareness of the potential impact of security breaches. As today’s devices and systems grow more complex and connected, this threat is growing exponentially. Time and again, we hear of some hacker or industrious engineering student demonstrating, either maliciously or as an educational warning, that a linked network may only be as secure as its most vulnerable element.
In a recent conversation with one of the foremost automated test and verification tool suppliers, an executive warned that while they hear overwhelming interest in security concerns across all verticals, actual investment in addressing the issue is not close to matching this professed concern.
Our findings do indeed confirm that within the Industrial Automation and Control (IAC) and Energy/Power industry, a distressingly high percentage of current projects involve no action to limit potential security issues.
Just over 42% of the engineers responding from IAC and energy/power market indicate no proactive actions have been taken to address security concerns on their current project. The fact that 40% state their current project has no specific security requirements should offer little relief. Our research indicates that many projects without specific security requirements certainly ought to have them. Lack of security prevention or mitigation does not mean no security threat exists. What should also be alarming is the percentage of respondents “very confident” their security requirements would be met on their current project was in the single digits!
This represents a large, potentially lucrative market opportunity for suppliers of security solutions. But it should be unsettling to everyone else with even a passing understanding of the potentially catastrophic impact of vulnerabilities in these markets. Heard of Stuxnet anyone?
In the next couple of weeks, the Embedded Software team here at VDC Research finishes publication of a series of vertical market reports. These studies examine embedded developers’ demand and requirements for commercial OSs and software development tools within key vertical markets.
Volume 1, covering embedded software technologies in the Automotive vertical is available now. Volume 2, available later this week, looks into the Industrial Automation and Control (IAC) and Energy / Power industries. Data in the exhibit above is based on findings from this volume.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
For more information on security findings, including statistics from other verticals, please take a look at part two of this discussion, coming here soon.
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