Market research firm Gartner predicts that by 2020 there will exist an Internet of Things black market valued at more than $5bn for Internet of Things (IoT) market.
Even though most of that data will be used to carry out criminal activity, at least some of it will be utilised to protect personal privacy.
The IoT will feature in more than half of new business processes and systems by 2020, according to Gartner.
The research firm noted that, as the cost of embedding sensors into physical items and connecting them to other things continues to decline, the impact of the IoT on the lives of consumers and businesses is rapidly increasing.
75% of IoT projects will take up to twice as long to complete than originally proposed through 2018; and three out of four IoT projects are expected to face schedule extensions of nearly 100% with the resulting cost overruns.
By 2020, Gartner expects companies to allocate 20% of their annual security budgets to address compromises in their IoT environments, up from less than 1% last year.
The research firm estimates that as the use of IoT devices increases, the requirements of IoT architecture, design and implementation over multiple industry segments and scenarios will also rise.
Gartner research vice president Earl Perkins noted that major cybersecurity vendors and service providers are already providing roadmaps and architecture of IoT security, in anticipation of market opportunity.
Perkins said: "Small startups delivering niche IoT security in areas such as network segmentation, device-to-device authentication and simple data encryption are offering first-generation products and services, including cloud-based solutions where applicable.
"Large security vendors have already begun acquiring some of these IoT startups to support their early roadmaps and fill niches in their portfolios."
