The ability of internet-driven communications to power the most familiar of household objects and infrastructures sounds very convenient, but hackers pose a risk. A fund investing in countering the threat is drawing attention in Asia.

The rise of the so-called “internet of things” is sparking worries that critical infrastructure and familiar household appliances could be hacked by criminals, opening potential for firms seeking to foil such threats. 

A fund that is targeting such business has been established by Pictet and the Swiss bank aims to draw in more investors’ interest from Asia into the fund, according to a report by the South China Morning Post. 

The publication spoke to Yves Kramer, senior investment manager of the thematic equities funds team at Pictet. The fund holds $4.3 billion of asseets. 

The internet of things is a network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate or interact with their internal states or external environment. Washing machines, power systems, heating, plumbing and factories can be remotely controlled by the internet. These ideas sound convenient – but are also vulnerable to attack. The SCMP report cited data from IBM stating that by 2020, the number of connected devices is expected to triple to 30 billion from 10 billion in 2014.

“With the number of connected devices tripling, IoT constantly sparks new threats at a pace that isn’t slowing,” he said, adding that for Asia-Pacific, the five-year compound annual growth rate of the market for security products and solutions is estimated to reach about 10 per cent by 2021.

The Pictet fund invests in firms primarily based in North America and Europe, spread across 72 stocks counting German automotive safety technology group Continental; cloud infrastructure and disaster recovery solutions provider Equinix; food safety and quality assurance provider Intertek, and others.