The use of connected building technology is exploding amid the coronavirus pandemic, forcing property owners and managers to find more ways to provide services to residents without face-to-face interaction. But as adoption of the Internet of Things has grown, awareness of its security risks hasn’t kept pace.
Merely managing a building during the pandemic has overwhelmed many property managers, and they haven’t been able to educate themselves on all the security protocols with IoT, Institute of Real Estate Management President Chip Watts said.
“There are so many different items out there right now that can be hacked and be a concern for security,” said Watts, who also is CEO of Alabama-based Watts Realty Co. “[The pandemic] has forced property managers of the world to embrace this technology faster than anyone imagined. We would have anticipated [we were] three-to-five years from embracing this technology as much as we have.”