E-Business
IDC Unveils Worldwide Forecast on IoT Spending by Vertical Market
International Data Corporation (IDC), on Monday, announced a new report, “Worldwide Internet of Things Spending by Vertical Market 2014-2017 Forecast,” which defines the IT opportunity for all vertical markets that comprise the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT) market.
The new report segments the IoT market as well as provides a forecast that illustrates which vertical industries show the greatest market opportunity over the next several years.
The market and forecast is based on internal IDC models, analysis, and survey information, which was used to create segmentation models around the 18 vertical markets that IDC tracks
As the Internet of Things (IoT) market starts to coalesce in both concept and solution offering, IDC recommends vendors take the next step and look at this huge IT opportunity in a more realistic and valuable framework.
As exciting as the overall opportunity for the IoT market currently exists, understanding the vertical ramifications is paramount.
All of the greatest IoT IT opportunities, from the connected home, smart meters, the connected car, and smart grid to personal wellness and connected health, are driven from a vertical market perspective.
“The Internet of Things market must be understood in terms of vertical markets because the value of IoT is based on individual use cases across all markets,” said Scott Tiazkun, senior research analyst, IDC’s Global Technology and Industry Research Organization.
“Successful sales and marketing efforts by vendors will be based on understanding the most lucrative verticals that offer current growth and future potential and then creating solutions for specific use cases that address industry-specific business processes.”
In a press statement made available to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, IDC defined the Internet of Things concept as a wired or wireless network connecting devices, or “things,” that is characterized by autonomous provisioning, management, and monitoring. IoT already impacts our everyday life down to the smallest processes.
The vertical opportunity that arises from IoT is already in play, but only if the need for vertical expertise is recognized and offered.
Realizing the existence of vertical opportunity is the first step to understanding the impact, and therefore market opportunity that exists, for IT vendors.
In addition, IDC has looked at the components, processes, and IT support for IoT and expects the technology and services revenue to expand from $4.8 trillion in 2012 to $7.3 trillion by 2017 at an 8.8% CAGR, with the greatest opportunity initially in the consumer, discrete manufacturing, and government vertical industries.
The IoT/M2M market is growing quickly, but the development of this market will not be consistent across all vertical markets. Industries that already “understand” IoT will see the most immediate growth, such as industrial production/automotive, transportation, and energy/utilities. However, all verticals will reflect great opportunity.
IoT is a derivative market containing many elements, including horizontal IT components as well as vertical and industry-specific IT elements. It is these vertical components where IT vendors will have to distinguish themselves to address industry-specific IoT needs.
IoT opens up many IT vendors to the consumer market, providing B2B2C services to connect and run homes and automobiles — all the places that electronic devices will have a networking capability.
According to the report, the first step to understand how vendors can position themselves will be to understand the components of the IoT/M2M IT ecosphere.
Because this is a derivative market, there are many opportunities for vendors to offer parts or product suites that cover the needed IoT IT set.
And vendors will have incentive to do so due to rapid growth which will occur as industries see the convenience, productivity, and efficiency that IoT brings to business processes.
Accordingly, while horizontal-focused IT vendors will look to offer IoT solutions that appeal to many industries, there will also be impetus to offer vertical-focused solutions that make IoT tangible for both industries applications (M2M) and consumer needs (B2B2C).
Tiazkun continued, “The IoT market will greatly impact and offer the potential for vertical-aligned businesses to improve both performance and profitability.
The IoT solutions space will expand exponentially and will offer every business endless IoT-focused solutions. The initial strategy of businesses should be to avoid choosing IoT-based solutions that will solve only immediate concerns and lack ‘staying power’.”
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
Cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has once again warned that sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target Africa as ransomware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) escalate across the region.
Speaking at the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend for the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, the cybersecurity firm’s Global Research and Analysis Team highlighted growing digital threats affecting African nations.
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as hotspots, with Kenya recording one of the highest web threat incident rates at 20.1% in first quarter 2025.
“While ransomware is less prevalent in Africa due to lower levels of digitisation and economic constraints, countries like South Africa and Nigeria are seeing a sharp rise in attacks,” said Sergey Lozhkin, head of META and APAC regions at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky noted a 0.01 percentage point increase in African ransomware cases year-on-year, reaching 0.41%, still below global and Middle Eastern averages, but a troubling sign for the continent’s emerging digital infrastructure.
Experts warned that attackers are refining their tactics, shifting focus to unconventional entry points like IoT devices, smart appliances, and misconfigured hardware.
“As these economies expand digitally, sectors such as manufacturing, finance and government are becoming key targets,” said Lozhkin
The cyber-crime landscape is evolving quickly, fuelled by AI tools and dark web access to large language models, which enable less skilled actors to launch convincing phishing and malware campaigns.
Groups like FunkSec, which uses AI-generated code and a low-cost ransom model, are redefining ransomware operations.
“African organisations face the dual challenge of expanding digital footprints and limited cybersecurity awareness. This makes layered defense strategies, including network segmentation, real-time monitoring and regular staff training, essential,” stated Lozhkin
Kaspersky continues to monitor 25 active APT groups in the META region, including SideWinder and MuddyWater, some of which are known to target African institutions.
To bolster defenses, the firm recommends using tools such as its free Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business and the Kaspersky Next suite for threat visibility and response.
Nigeria recently launched a new joint case team to step up its response to cybercrimes that affect people and businesses at home and abroad.
The ‘Joint Case Team on Cybercrime’ brings together Nigeria’s key justice and security agencies to work as one, making it easier to detect, investigate, and prosecute digital offences.
It is supported by the UK National Crime Agency, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Commonwealth Secretariat, as part of a wider effort to promote international cooperation on cybercrime.
Speaking at the launch in Abuja, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN, minister of justice and attorney general of the federation described the initiative as “a bold and transformative stride in Nigeria’s justice system.”
He said that although Nigeria has a national legal framework to address cyber offences, laws alone are not enough.
Nigeria is among the countries most affected by cybercrime around the world, with increasing financial losses.
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