ISACA Finds North American Enterprises Are Cautious About Augmented Reality, Despite Business Benefits
Global Survey Highlights Latest Enterprise and Consumer Views on Internet of Things and AR
Rolling Meadows, IL, USA (14 Nov 2016) — With this year’s release of Pokémon Go, awareness of augmented reality (AR) applications soared among organizations and consumers. Despite its popularity and potential business benefits, AR adoption rates are slow among enterprises, according to a new study from global business technology and cybersecurity association ISACA. Only 15 percent of IT professionals in North America are convinced that the benefits of AR outweigh the risks, and consumers also have concerns about the possible risks of Internet of Things (IoT) devices enhanced with AR.
The spread of technology such as AR and IoT devices can add significant business value and personal convenience. Yet, the business world is still in the early stages of AR adoption, with security concerns posing the top barrier to adoption of AR in North America. Only seven percent have a program in place to monitor negative comments on virtual graffiti apps. Additionally:
- Thirty-eight percent of organizations have no plans to use AR applications within the next year.
- Only 14 percent of respondents have used AR outside of work.
- Only 31 percent are confident they have a way to detect pictures, posts and videos geotagged to their business location or advertisements.
ISACA’s annual IT Risk/Reward Barometer polls thousands of business technology professionals and consumers worldwide to uncover attitudes and behaviors about essential technologies and information, and the trade-offs organizations and consumers must make in weighing both the benefits and potential threats. This year’s five-country consumer study – conducted in the US, UK, Australia, India and Singapore – focused on IoT devices and those enhanced with AR.
More than three in four consumers in each region surveyed are concerned that AR enhancements may make their devices more vulnerable to a privacy breach. In India, that number rises to more than 90 percent. And the majority of consumers in each region believe that their workplace is vulnerable to virtual graffiti attacks.
Still, consumers recognize the potential benefits of AR-enhanced devices in everyday life and in work. Among US respondents, 69 percent think workplace trainings utilizing AR could make it easier for them to do their jobs, and the same percentage think AR-enhanced training guides would be helpful in their daily lives.
Recommendations for Adopting AR in the Workplace
ISACA experts offer organizations the following recommendations to account for the risk and reward represented by augmented reality and IoT:
- Extend social media monitoring to AR platforms. Leverage and extend current social media policies and monitoring to augmented reality platforms.
- Look at how AR can improve your business. Training and diagnostics are two areas with strong potential.
- Review your governance framework. Incorporate use of AR as part of the business into organizational policies and procedures.
- Consider the privacy angle. Explore the privacy ramifications related to these new technologies.
“Enterprises need to work on being agile and applying sound measures around governance, security and risk management to fully realize the benefits of these technology advances. Proactive monitoring for malicious activity like virtual graffiti and data breaches is critical for businesses to gain the full value of new technologies while mitigating risk,” said Christos Dimitriadis, Ph.D. CISA, CISM, CRISC, chair of ISACA’s Board of Directors and group director of Information Security for INTRALOT.
About the IT Risk/Reward Barometer
ISACA’s annual IT Risk/Reward Barometer polled 6,591 ISACA members among 140 countries in addition to 1,230 consumers in the US, 1,000 consumers in the UK, 1,000 consumers in Australia, 1,001 consumers in India and 1,000 consumers in Singapore. At a 95 percent confidence level, the margin of error for each individual country sample is +/- 3.1 percent. To see findings for US, UK, Australia, India and Singapore, as well as consumer and IT infographics and a global executive summary, visit www.isaca.org/risk-reward-barometer.
About ISACA
ISACA (www.isaca.org) is a global association of technology and information security professionals with more than 140,000 members and certification holders in 187 countries.
