## 1 Introduction  
These days, organizations from around the world leverage technological advances at an unprecedented pace [1]. The COVID-19 pandemic has further fueled technical innovations and technological convergence, expedited digital connectivity in and around organizations, and made way for a greater international appetite towards remote everything (e.g., remote work, remote healthcare) [2]. In this context, this pandemic arguably acted as a catalyst for greater critical dependency on internet-based technologies [3] including, inter alia, some of the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. For instance, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, IoT has been employed for predicting how the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, tracking the health conditions of people, monitoring COVID-19 patients, tracking the real-time location of medical equipment, and detecting fraudulent healthcare insurance claims [4]. Moreover, the application of IoT in healthcare was studied as part of a systematic review conducted by [PERSON] et al. [5]. Besides its application in healthcare, IoT has various application areas, including smart mobility, smart grid, smart home/building, public safety and environment monitoring, industrial processing, smart agriculture, and independent living [6]. Hence, there are numerous research studies that cover individual and various application areas of IoT. With respect to the various application areas of IoT, examples of studies include the comprehensive review conducted by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [6] that highlighted, among others, various contributions of researchers in different areas of applications of IoT, and the comprehensive literature-based survey conducted by [PERSON] et al. [7] that focused on exploring the applications of IoT in different areas, including healthcare, environmental, commercial, industrial, smart cities, and infrastructural applications. Then, with respect to the individual application areas of IoT, examples of studies include the research works about an advanced IoT-based transportation system for efficient vehicle routing and scheduling in urban areas that described the concept and methodological approach for its development [8], proposed its architecture [9], and demonstrated its use in a case study [10]. Thus, the various application areas of IoT along with the numerous research contributions in different areas of applications of IoT indicate an extensive appetite for leveraging IoT technologies. Furthermore, the World Economic Forum [11] anticipated an even faster adoption of IoT technologies in the post COVID-19 economy. The prospect of IoT growth over the next few years was also highlighted in the study conducted by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [6], which pointed out that the need for greater interaction between various entities and more precise evaluation of sensor data are key drivers for ubiquitous connectivity. Notwithstanding, the aggressive adoption of and reliance on new network- and internet-connected technologies within organizations broaden their attack surface [12] and heighten their inherent cybersecurity risk through and beyond the coronavirus pandemic. In this context, the COVID-19 crisis may invite more numerous hostile actors to capitalize on cybercrime by targeting vulnerable organizations [13], which in effect makes cybersecurity risk more prevalent. In addition, the projected growth of IoT in the post COVID-19 business environment [11] may further widen the attack surface of organizations and exacerbate their cybersecurity risk through the expansion of IoT security risk. Hence, considering that IoT security risk management is a challenge for organizations [14], having a robust IoT security risk management strategy in place becomes of particular importance [15] through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, numerous entities around the globe are working on developing mandatory and voluntary IoT security requirements aimed at stimulating industry and government organizations to adopt robust IoT security practices.