In 2019, the ETech 7 blog has covered all sorts of cyberattacks and DIY measures that you can do to help you and your business secure your assets. From ransomware to more complex phishing campaigns, these sorts of attacks are set to become more complicated after the rapid leaps technology has made in the past year.
As these types of cyberattacks increase, with government offices and the private sector being targeted, we should expect a busier year for cybersecurity in 2020.
Is data security still a thing?
Cloud computing, one of the most innovative leaps of the past decade, has been exploited more and more the past couple of years. Instances of phishing scams, hacked databases, and exposed cloud storages have called for a push to strengthen data security with governments all over the world being called to allocate hefty budgets to put strong data security measures.
According to Forbes, the first six months of 2019 have seen more than 3,800 publicly disclosed breaches exposing an incredible 4.1 billion compromised records.
So what should we expect in 2020? In an era where attacks are getting more complex, what could businesses do to protect their data?
Security awareness and basic infosec training is the way to go.
“Think of this as an investment, spending a couple of hours for a presentation about the most basic security principles should help equip your employees in determining which sites to avoid, what types of emails to not click, and when to seek help,” says Emil Isanov, CEO, ETech 7 -- a company dedicated to providing safe and secure managed IT services. “These types of grassroots initiatives would not only save your company money and resources in replacing or fixing a computer but also avoid probably downtime for your employees.”
Isaac Kohen from Teramind, a company that specializes in user activity monitoring and data loss prevention, has written an article for Help Net Security about the need to highlight stronger security measures to protect consumer data.
“In 2020, companies need to understand that technological advancement can’t come at the expense of data security, and locking down these resources is often as simple as checking and rechecking that critical company data is password protected and not openly exposed to anyone able to locate it,” says Kohen.
Expect an increase in breaches and attacks
Both the public and the private sector have experienced a diverse number of attacks in 2019. From regular phishing email scams to more complicated (and often expensive) ransomware attacks, it appears that 2020 will be no different and is more than likely to experience an increase in the volume of cyberattacks.
The modern workplace is finding it difficult to keep up with emerging threats across different types of channels, tools, and clouds. Now that we are experiencing a more integrated approach in the devices that we use in our everyday work, we can also expect more complex and targeted attacks to the various devices that we now use such as our mobile phones, laptops/personal computers, as well as tablets and smart assistants.
AI will be a double-edged sword
The speed at which AI is developing in the tech world could both be considered as an advantage and a disadvantage. A cybersecurity article from Forbes has predicted that AI will become pivotal in 2020. According to the article, AI, ranging from linear regressions to deep learning, will become one of the most used types of technology in the future. Aarti Borkar, Vice President, IBM Security, says “As AI adoption in cybersecurity expands, security concerns around AI bias will also grow. As security teams’ use of AI continues to grow, they’ll need to monitor and manage potential bias in their AI models to avoid security blind spots that result in missed threats or more false positives. One way to help prevent bias within AI is to establish cognitive diversity - diversity in the computer scientists developing the AI model, the data feeding it, and the security teams influencing it.”
What Borkar meant is that AI can be helpful but also destructive in the realm of cybersecurity. As AI develops, humans behind the technology will also be able to develop certain techniques and strategies to be able to mitigate the risks involved as well as identify unexpected threats. On the other hand, however, we should also be wary about the same technology being exploited by cybercriminals.
This list is by no means a comprehensive list of things to expect in 2020. However, these are some of the best guesses we here at ETech 7 can come up with based on data from the past couple of years.
The best measure to better equip you and your business? Easy. Keep yourself informed. Stay ahead of the game and try to put as many security measures as you can in order to protect you and your assets. Prevention is always better than cure. However, if the inevitable happens, ETech 7 is here to help you with your cybersecurity needs. If you want to know more, click here.