By 2026, IoT connections will exceed 23 billion across all major IoT markets, according to global tech market advisory firm ABI Research. Secure device authentication currently stands among the top-tier investment priorities for key IoT markets. ABI Research expects hardware-focused IoT authentication services will reach $8.4 billion in revenue by 2026.

“There are several key technologies revolving around authentication security that currently transform the IoT device value chain,” said Dimitrios Pavlakis, industry analyst at ABI Research. “Chief elements among them revolve around IoT identity issuance, provisioning, authentication, encryption key lifecycle management, access management and attestation . .  . As it currently stands, the IoT is not a secure place for future deployments and both IoT players and digital security vendors are aware of that. The good news is that the recent change in thinking has caused a noticeable mentality shift and investment surge for secure authentication technologies across the IoT ecosystem; the bad news is that this also gives rise to many IoT management offerings with questionable levels of security and intelligence.”  

These findings are from ABI Research’s Device Authentication in IoT technology analysis report. This report is part of the company’s digital security research service, which includes research, data and ABI insights.