NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The cybersecurity decisions organizations make about connected devices today could become the governance decisions they are forced to defend tomorrow. In a new whitepaper, Y27: The Governance Reckoning for IoT Security, global technology intelligence firm ABI Research finds that IoT cybersecurity is moving beyond technical best practice and becoming an issue of corporate governance, procurement accountability, and reasonable care. As U.S. federal policy, regulatory scrutiny, and enterprise risk management converge ahead of January 4, 2027, organizations will increasingly need documented, defensible evidence that connected devices meet recognized cybersecurity baselines. The shift represents what ABI Research describes as the end of "trust me" security. For decades, organizations have relied on manufacturer claims, supplier assurances, contractual promises, and internal processes to establish trust in connected products. As regulatory and legal scrutiny increases, those assertions are giving way to a need for objective evidence that recognized security requirements have been met. Y27 marks a turning point for connected device security as trust can no longer rest on vendor claims alone. For boards, CIOs, CISOs, and procurement leaders, the question is shifting from whether a breach can happen to whether the organization can demonstrate that it exercised reasonable care in selecting, deploying, and governing IoT devices. ABI Research estimates there were 19 billion IoT connections globally in 2025, with that number forecast to grow to 37 billion by 2030. As the number of connections nearly doubles and connected devices proliferate across homes, workplaces, healthcare environments, schools, industrial sites, and public sector infrastructure, the expanding attack surface creates risks ranging from lateral movement and data compromise to service disruption, unauthorized surveillance, and broader network exposure. The firm notes that the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark is significant not only as a consumer-facing label, but as an operational and