Saturday, December 23rd, 2017
From EU GDPR to AI – Cyber Security Predictions 2018
With 2018 approaching fast on the horizon, the cybersecurity community questions whether or not the lessons taught in 2017 will have fallen upon deaf ears. 2017 marks one of the biggest years in history for high-profile data breaches, and 2018 will be no different. As cyber-criminals become more skilled in their work and their technologies more advanced, this game of cat-and-mouse between adversaries trying to penetrate systems and organisations making efforts to protect their data, is far from over. Here are a few of our cyber security predictions for 2018.
GDPR – The First Breach Will Set An Example
One thing is for sure in 2018 – The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be enforced on May 25. What does this mean for business? GDPR will mean extensive compliance obligations for businesses. If your organisation processes, holds or monitors personal data relating to EU citizens you need to be compliant. If not, you could face fines of up to €20 million or 4% of the global turnover of your organisation. From a data security perspective, organisations will need to implement tighter access control measures, ensure their systems’ availability and reliability through regular security assessments, revisit policies and procedures, and implement technical measures to protect against data breaches.
What else?
Cybercriminal Evolution
Cyber-attacks are exposed daily, and this is not expected to slow down in 2018. In fact, there will be an increase in cybercriminal activity as we move forward. The media has publicised how profitable cybercrime can be (Ransomware was a $1 Billion industry in 2016), leading to a stronger uptake in cybercriminal careers. We expect cyber crime to rise both in numbers and sophistication.
Ransomware Returns
WannaCry, NotPetya and BadRabbit successfully took organisations offline for days and, in some cases, weeks. Enterprise ransomware will become a major trend in 2018, and the attacks of this year displayed the potential for cybercriminals to hold entire networks hostage.
Crypto Crackdown
Cryptocurrencies will face security challenges in 2018. We witnessed how a flaw with parity, the popular wallet for Ethereum, led to one developer losing $300 million of the currency. As cryptocurrencies become more popular, 2018 will also see more malicious activity of the sort that allowed adversaries to copy and replace data with CryptoShuffler. Hackers swapped legitimate owners addresses with the hacker’s address, as if a crypto transaction had occurred.
However, we estimate the adoption of blockchain technologies to rise significantly, creating an online environment with tighter security and less anonymity than we’ve seen in the past.
Increased Attack On Cloud Providers
Cloud providers will become a target by attackers looking to cause disruption. Unfortunately, organistions that use cloud providers will have limited response capabilities and no control over the attacked infrastructure, leaving numerous companies no choice but to deploy a multi-cloud strategy.
AI Will Power Cyber Security
2017 was the year when the power of Artificial Intelligence took off in terms of cybersecurity. IBM launched Watson for Cybersecurity worldwide, transforming the cybersecurity industry and helping analysts identity threats more accurately and resolve them faster than ever before. In 2018 we will see more security technologies adopting AI allowing for human and electronic intelligence to be combined more effectively.
Many other predictions have been made for next year, including the increase in Powershell-based attacks, Internet of Things exploits, but also increased security measures by organisations such as biometrics and multi-factor authentication.
It is safe to say that the cost in loss of reputation (and now stricter financial implications) from a security breach greatly exceeds the cost of investing in preventative security measures and ensuring your business is compliant. Find out more about the best ways to protect your organisation from cyber criminals at Zero Day Con. Over 500 CIOs and CISOs will gather at Zero Day Con on March 7th 2018 to discuss the cyber security challenges that organisations will be facing in 2018. For more information go www.zerodaycon.com
This article was written by Conor Kelly (Cyber Security Analyst at Smarttech247); edited by Raluca Saceanu (Marketing Director/Quality Manager)
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