"The 'Internet of Things' is one of those nebulous bits of jargon invented by the IT industry and many people I meet are confused as to what it actually means," said Mike Foreman, AVG's general manager, SMB. "With this study we wanted to show how the IoT can bring opportunity to small businesses."

"Another aim of the report was to highlight key areas of difference between countries," he continued. "For example, it was significant that U.S. respondents were the only ones to put government monitoring ahead of lack of demand when it came to factors holding back IoT adoption."

The study*, in which more than 2,000 small businesses in the U.S., Canada, the UK and Australia were interviewed, also showed that there is much more to do to help them understand what IoT actually means (only 58 percent understood IoT to mean a network of connected devices that are able to communicate with one another).

Asked to list their concerns about Internet-connected devices, small businesses named their top three as:

    1. Risk - more than half (54 percent) of respondents think the IoT will
       result in their organization being more open to security breaches or
       hacking.  Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of those surveyed agreed that
       security software aimed at IoT would put their mind at ease.
    2. Complexity - data security (48 percent) and backups (34 percent) would
       become more complex
    3. Cost - 44 percent said that cost is a reason preventing them from
       implementing IoT

A summary of the other main findings in the study were:

    --  The vast majority (80 percent) of respondents reported IoT as being
        relevant to their business to some extent.
    --  The main benefits of IoT will come from increased access (65 percent of
        respondents) and faster access (66 percent) to more data along with
        productivity gains (69 percent). 56 percent said it will help customer
        satisfaction and 51 percent expected it to help them be more profitable.
    --  Respondents were of the opinion that the top 5 devices that could
        present a security threat were: IP Phones (66 percent), CCTV (42
        percent), Factory Equipment (34 percent), Sensors (31 percent) and
        Actuators (28 percent).
    --  The top reasons respondents associated with the IoT that are preventing
        small businesses from buying and implementing smart devices were cost
        (48 percent), security (51 percent) and fears about government
        monitoring (27 percent).

* AVG commissioned independent technology market research specialist Vanson Bourne to undertake this research.  2000 interviews were carried out during April 2014 with IT decision-makers of organizations with of 1 - 500 employees. Interviews were performed across four countries: UK, US, Canada and Australia. Respondents to this research came from a range of industry sectors, with only the public sector excluded.

Interviews were conducted online using a rigorous multi-level screening process to ensure that only suitably qualified candidates were given the opportunity to participate.