A global analysis of IoT use in home networks

A study conducted by researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Stanford University, and Avast Software, analysed the use of Internet of things (IoT) devices in homes around the world. According to the findings of the study, the leading continents in IoT use are North America, Western Europe and Oceania (50% and more), followed by South America, East Asia (30%), Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, (20%-25%), North Africa and the Middle East, Central Asia  (17%-19%), and finally South Asia (less than 10%). The continents also differ in the popularity of various IoT devices. While in North America, Internet-connected television or streaming devices are the most popular ones, in South Asia, most IoT devices are surveillance devices. Although in all regions the security of these devices is lacking, there is still a variance in the level of security between them. In North American and West Europe, the study revealed less security related issues, in comparison to Central Asia, South America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers also discovered that most of the devices are manufactured by a handful of popular vendors in all regions. The full study will be presented at the upcoming Usenix Security Conference 2019.