Consumers may be overestimating the security of home security. While 64% of American broadband households worry about security and privacy when they use their connected devices, 63% think the signals from their monitored homes are encrypted – though they usually are not, according to a whitepaper from Parks Associates.
The whitepaper, “Residential Security and Encryption: Setting the Standard, Protecting Consumers,” points out that encrypting signals is not a standard security industry practice. The white paper was sponsored by security system manufacturer Qolsys.
Security of Home Security
Even dealers that install security systems may be surprised to know that the reality falls shorts of their expectations regarding the security of home security systems, said Tom Kerber, the Director of Parks Associates’ IoT Strategy, in a press release. “The cybersecurity threats toward today’s connected products and home security systems are rapidly increasing and require constant vigilance,” he said. “Many new tools are emerging to help dealers understand the evolving threats from cybersecurity attacks, choose the right partners to address vulnerabilities, and put mechanisms in place to quickly respond to emerging threats.”
Home security is an important element of the evolving smart home sector. It is attractive to many people and could entice people to make their homes smart. This, over time, could lead to non-security smart home purchases such as smart environmental control and various home entertainment products.
Parks also looked at security last month. The firm said that the likelihood of a consumer purchasing a system increases if he or she has physical and contractual control.
Late last year, J.D. Power found that Vivent Smart Home and Guardian Protection Services were first and second, respectively, in customer satisfaction. Those two security focused firms were followed by AT&T, MONI, ADT and Comcast.
