Happy Thursday! Before you head into the long holiday weekend, let us talk about something quietly lurking in your office that most businesses completely overlook. No, it is not that old laptop in the supply closet. It is every single device connected to your network that nobody is actively managing.
Welcome to the Internet of Things Problem
Walk around your office and count. The smart thermostat. The conference room display. The Wi-Fi enabled printer. The security cameras. The badge readers on the doors. The break room fridge that someone thought it would be fun to put on the guest network three years ago. Every single one of these is a connected device, and every single one of them is a potential entry point into your business.
This is the Internet of Things, commonly called IoT, and in 2026 it has become one of the most significant and most underestimated attack surfaces in the modern business environment. The connected device population reached 21.1 billion globally at the end of 2025 and is projected to hit 39 billion by 2030. That is an extraordinary amount of hardware, and the uncomfortable truth is that most of it was not designed with security as a priority.
Why IoT Devices Are So Easy to Exploit
Traditional computers, laptops, and smartphones have entire operating systems built around security patching, user authentication, and threat detection. IoT devices are different. They are built to do one thing cheaply and efficiently, and security is typically an afterthought.
Most IoT devices ship with default usernames and passwords that are publicly documented. Manufacturers publish the default credentials in their setup guides, which means any attacker with Google access can look them up in seconds. Shockingly, a large percentage of businesses never change these defaults.
Beyond default credentials, IoT devices rarely receive the kind of regular software updates that your computers get. A security camera installed three years ago may be running firmware with known vulnerabilities that have never been patched. Because nobody thinks about the camera as a computer, nobody thinks about keeping its software current. But attackers absolutely do.
As of 2025, over 50 percent of all cybersecurity incidents involved attacks on operational technology, making IoT security the primary battleground in corporate cybersecurity. OT and IoT devices now account for 42 percent of enterprise assets and represent 64 percent of mid-to-high level enterprise risk. Those are not small numbers.
What a Real IoT Attack Looks Like
In March 2026, law enforcement agencies in the United States, Germany, and Canada dismantled four IoT botnets that had collectively infected more than 3 million devices. These botnets were capable of generating distributed denial-of-service attacks exceeding 31 terabits per second. The devices being used as weapons included business-grade routers, cameras, and connected office equipment from organizations that had no idea their hardware was compromised.
That is the scenario nobody talks about. Your business does not just risk being attacked through IoT vulnerabilities. Your business could become an unwitting participant in attacks against other organizations, with all of the legal, reputational, and operational fallout that comes with it.
A Practical Approach to IoT Security
The good news is that protecting your IoT environment does not require exotic technology. It requires discipline and visibility.
Start with a full device inventory. You cannot protect what you do not know exists. Conduct a systematic audit of every device connected to your network, including the ones that have been there so long that nobody remembers who set them up.
Segment your network. IoT devices should never live on the same network segment as your computers and servers. Place them on a dedicated, isolated network that cannot communicate with your core business systems. If a camera or printer is compromised, the attacker is isolated in a walled-off zone rather than free to move through your environment.
Change every default credential. Every device. No exceptions. Use strong, unique passwords managed through a password manager, and document them in a secure location.
Patch what you can and replace what you cannot. Some IoT devices support firmware updates. Enable automatic updates where available. For devices that no longer receive updates from the manufacturer, consider replacement. Keeping an unsupported device on your network is the equivalent of leaving a window permanently open.
Monitor network traffic for anomalies. IoT devices typically exhibit predictable traffic patterns. A camera that suddenly starts sending large amounts of data to an unfamiliar external IP address is a red flag worth investigating.
This Is Where RJ2 Technologies Comes In
IoT security is exactly the kind of problem that slips through the cracks when a business does not have a proactive IT partner. At RJ2 Technologies, we help businesses discover every device on their network, implement proper segmentation, enforce credential hygiene, and put monitoring in place that catches unusual behavior before it becomes a serious incident. Your connected devices should make your business more efficient, not more vulnerable. Let us make sure that is the case.
Book your free discovery call here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/jeff-dann/free-discovery-call
