[BreachExchange] Five trends to watch out for in cybersecurity

[Audrey McNeil]

http://www.cio.in/opinion/five-trends-watch-out-cybersecurity

Cybersecurity—the protection of valuable intellectual property, business
information and financial transactions in digital form against theft and
misuse—is an increasingly critical issue in India, especially in the light
of ‘Demonetization’ and GST which have played a big role in transforming
the way India transacts. The overall security landscape in 2018 will be an
extension of what we witnessed in 2017 through ransomware attacks such as
WannaCry and NotPetya. India was at the center of these attacks, which
means the luxury of being aloof from global events of this scale is no
longer available to institutions, governments, businesses, and individuals
in India. An attack which plagues organizations in the US and UK is
definitely going to hit us too.

In our opinion, the following five trends will define the cybersecurity
landscape in 2018.

Privacy and Personal Data Protection: Privacy and personal data protection
will be the focus in 2018. A growing number of organizations are now
processing Aadhaar-related information and personally identifiable
information of customers, which have given rise to the concerns around the
privacy and personal data protection. Data security of the information will
take the center-stage in 2018. First, General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR) of the EU will also have a considerable impact on the
multi-nationals. Secondly, the Supreme Court of India’s ruling in favor of
‘Right to Privacy’ will also influence the security landscape. Due to this,
for the first time in many years, organizations will start showing
significant interest in advanced encryption and key management technologies
in order to secure customer data.

Machine Learning in Cybersecurity: Machine learning (ML) in cybersecurity
will go through a trough of disillusionment and will inch closer to
becoming mature. As organizations will be keen to adopt solutions and
technologies that can help them predict and prevent cyber security
instances in real time, the market will witness numerous cybersecurity
products claiming ML capabilities. Stakeholders should rationalize their
expectations and focus on tangible outcomes using ML.

Customized security solutions: As the threat landscape is becoming complex
with hackers launching targeted attacks on different organizations and
their users, organizations are gradually realizing the need to add security
layers designed for them or by them in-house. As a result, organizations
will explore non-standard solutions including building in-house
capabilities to meet cybersecurity requirements. Since the nature of every
business is different, organizations will also invest more in localized
solutions/products. It is probable that many organizations start building
their own in-house solutions to fulfill unmet demands.

Indian security start-ups to garner spotlight: With growing need for
customized solutions and disillusionment with a number of solutions,
cybersecurity start-ups in India will find traction and may reach a tipping
point in 2018. Many large banks, telecom companies, insurance firms,
government organizations and e-commerce firms, among others, will find
their security needs underserved by the existing security products and
solutions in the market, thereby forcing them to look up to start-ups to
build and implement innovative security solutions.

Back to Basics: Organizations will refocus on basics including protection
of crown jewels. While malware and ransomware attacks will continue to
grow, organizations will refocus on protecting what is really important.
The focus will move from protecting endpoints to securing organizational
data – whether in physical datacenters or in the cloud. Encryption, access
control, cloud security, and secure DevOps will be some of the key
initiatives in 2018.

In essence, 2018 is going to be a momentous year for cybersecurity. A lot
will be on stake as the nature and frequency of cyber attacks will force
organizations to multiply their focus on cybersecurity. Thus, given the
increasing pace and complexity of threats and the clear focus on realizing
a more cashless economy, organizations are advised to adopt approaches to
cybersecurity that help them protect critical business information without
constraining innovation and growth. It is high time that CIOs and CISOs
keep their stakes high to deal with any security challenge that might cross
their way in 2018.
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