Cyber Security is one of the fundamental elements of any digital organization. As progressive and crucial it is to sail with the waves of digitization, so is it to ensure that the digital platforms are safe and not vulnerable to attacks. Most businesses make the mistake of not paying attention to the aspect of cybersecurity. They equate small for safe, and as a result, are taken aback when a cyber-attack happens.
Not only do cyber-attacks cause loss of money but they also impact customer trust and damage intellectual property. According to a recent report, nearly 43 percent of small businesses are affected by data breaches and attacks. Moreover, only 14 percent of these businesses rate their ability to analyze and battle cyber risks, strikes and any other vulnerabilities as highly effective. A majority of businesses ignore these facts and choose to do business blinded by their assumptions. They invest in everything except cybersecurity. Having said this, nearly 60 percent of the companies go out of business due to cyber-attacks.
There are no ends to cyber-attacks. Hackers and cyber-attack criminals create an average of 230,000 malware samples daily, and this number is all set to grow in the future. As more and more organizations digitally transform themselves, cyber attackers readily layout malicious traps for them. With each passing day, these attacks are becoming more and more prominent and challenging to battle. Research indicates that organizations can go over six months without detecting a breach in their data. The fact of the matter is that this statistic doesn’t just encompass small businesses. It also sheds light on the vulnerability and carelessness of renowned IT organizations.
However, all is not lost when it comes to analyzing threats and ensuring cybersecurity. Since 95 percent of the breaches take place due to the employees’ errors in a company, they can be minimized with awareness and knowledge of security protocols. Meanwhile, to battle intensive cyber-attacks, security trends are advancing. Researchers and cybersecurity companies are harnessing the latest technology and tools to come up with effective measures and tools that battle cyber-attacks like a pro.
Current Picture of Cyber Security
The current scenario of the cybersecurity market seems positive. Governments all across the world are taking adequate measures to battle cyber-attacks with eavesdropping centers and tools. For example, the National Initiative of Cyber Security information in the US was established in the year 2017 and ever since made widespread efforts to improve awareness and security capabilities across organizations.
Similarly, investments in cybersecurity technology have grown, and we are now witnessing behavior-based threat analytics. It concentrates on mitigating insider threats and those that arise on account of human error, which is one of the most significant sources of cyber vulnerabilities for companies.
Overall, organizations are beginning to see cybersecurity as a vital component of their survival in today’s world. But there is still a gap between understanding and actual implementation. According to a report by AT & T, organizations see cybersecurity as the most under-performing IT sector despite investing significantly in it. It turns out factors like inadequate staffing, lack of necessary tools and technology and the need for improved data visibility might have critical roles to play. And for this reason, things need to change.
Today, one of the most significant setbacks to cybersecurity in organizations is that there is a massive gap between leaders and their IT counterparts. According to a recent survey, organizations were asked whether their current cybersecurity solutions keep the company safe. The insights were quite surprising as 60 percent of the C level executives agreed, while only 29 percent of the IT security staff did. Therefore, this is an urgent need to bridge this gap and reinforce the latest security solutions for maximum efficiency. Some of the upcoming cybersecurity trends are-
Security Automation
Since staffing is a significant issue in cybersecurity and also prone to a lot of errors, there might be a rise in security automation tools. Automation in security and data privacy will ensure that widespread networks and extensive grounds are comfortably covered in the least amount of time. Technologies like artificial intelligence will start to play a vital role in the day to day functionalities of cybersecurity. We might also see security companies launch cybersecurity management platforms to capitalize on automation.
Mobile Devices
More and more Java software are being developed for mobile devices
with each passing day. After all, the number of mobile phone users in the world is rising at an unprecedented rate. As more and more applications find their way to mobile, so make cyber-attacks. Botnets are one of the most common means by which hackers penetrate a mobile network and walk away with crucial information. Moreover, companies find it an extremely challenging task to manage and deploy different security protocols on platforms like desktop and mobile. Therefore, we might discover a unified approach to cybersecurity in the future where just one vendor guarantees the end to end security of the entire organization.
Data Privacy
One of the most vital areas that require the attention of organizations is data privacy. Data is one of the most vulnerable entities in the digital world. While companies are to an extent aware of cybersecurity for their organizations, they seldom pay attention to data privacy. There is a strong need for more data privacy regulation in the coming days. With the general data protection regulation taking place taking effect from 2018, companies find their regulatory pipeline growing.
Crypto-jacking
Cyber-criminals mine for virtual coins using computational resources. This process is known as crypto-jacking. A recent report suggests that more than 3 million crypto-jacking hits were detected between January and May in 2018. This number was also observed to increase threefold since 2017. Therefore, researchers need to come up with Cryptocurrency mining detectors that identify unauthorized mining software within an enterprise.
Conclusion
No matter which headline you look at today, there will be more than a few incidents of cyber-attacks reported. Be it attacks on utility companies in the US or the famous ransomware attack on the City Power in the West Indies. There is no end to the increasing cyber threats. Therefore, it becomes essential for organizations to keep up with the latest security practices and harness technologies like AI and ML to battle cyber-attacks.
