The rise of cyberattacks in recent years has transformed cybersecurity into a top priority for businesses. Furthermore, these attacks have been targeting indiscriminately not only small businesses and users, but large firms and national institutions. The need for cybersecurity solutions has transformed the sector into a thriving industry worldwide, expected to reach the $1 trillion mark by 2021.

The threat is  very real, given the fact that most companies nowadays, old and new, have presence on the web. They use databases to store all kinds of data: from user’s IDs to accountancy numbers, and any other sort of highly sensitive information, crucial for the functioning of the company.

Luckily at this point, and after a horrific 2017, firms have started to take cybersecurity seriously, and have found in new technologies some answers. As a result, these growing concerns about cybersecurity have brought us more security solutions. Software, firewalls and antivirus systems have been benefited by recent developments in Artificial Intelligence, adaptive authentication, blockchain technology and the Internet of things, to name few, in this never-ending cat-and-mouse cybersecurity race. Thus all eyes are now fixed on Intelligent Security, Blockchain and IoT tools.

What trends do we expect to see more in 2019 in terms of cybersecurity? And are they truly ready for the challenge?

Intelligent security software

The rise of “intelligent security” will certainly happen. This term has been around for the past few years, but now we’re finally seeing it come to fruition in specific tools. This term includes a whole array of different technologies, from AI to the Cloud, although working in parallel to become a whole security system itself. It can be defined as a protective shield capable of learning and adapting through data to external threats.

Intelligent security combines aspects of machine learning and artificial intelligence with traditional security applications. The tools are more capable of adapting to new threats and to secure new types of applications. Basically, this system is based on AI algorithms that are able to learn from security breaches to avoid them in the future. Consequently, the more attacks a system is hit with, the more reliable the security will be to defend itself in the future.

Among the solutions brought by Intelligent security, we can find threat intelligence software, or cloud security software as its most representatives. As it was recently mentioned by G2 Crowd security site, “Threat intelligence networks and applications provide companies with the latest information on new cyber threats such as zero-day attacks, new forms of malware and recently discovered exploits.” This software uses machine learning capabilities, so it is able to spot newly found malware within the system and deal with it.

Cloud security software, on the other hand, is developed to avoid massive data breach in large data sets stored in the cloud. Business have started to rely in the cloud as a more effective way of storing data. As such, SaaS solutions have become a real hit among businesses. However, the potential vulnerabilities have soared along. To avoid data breaches, firms have started to insert endpoint cloud application gateways and cloud-based network security tools to protect sensitive business information. These products can be used to protect end-users, the data those end-users may be transferring over unsecured networks and the public cloud itself.

Blockchain as a safe network

Blockchain is another emerging technology that will be used as a cybersecurity tool more in 2019, although it is not its first functionality. However, blockchain itself can be seen as a cybersecurity measure as this distributed ledger allows secure transactions and the identities of the parties involved are anonymous. Everything is validated through a public ledger, so all peers in the network have to accept any change made within the blockchain. Nonetheless, information remains private through a highly complex encryption process.

Security powered by blockchain can be applied to identity management software, transactional systems, healthcare data management and any other industry you can think of. By using the security of blockchain, companies could realistically save tons of time and money by streamlining transactions and securing them with blockchain. Everything is quite exciting when talking about blockchain, although we still need to think that we are in the early days of its development and changes and improvements are still needed before going mainstream.

IoT security tools

Internet of Things, or IoT, is a controversial technology, to say the less. Its capability of connecting literally everything (even a fridge) around a person allows it for levels of connection never seen before, but on the other hand, it also increases the possibility of more devices being subjected to get hacked. That means a lot of more endpoints to secure and a new threats to identify.

IoT security tools have emerged to help prevent these unsuspecting endpoints from divulging sensitive information or becoming part of a bigger attack. A good thing is that since IoT is still evolving and concerns about its security have arisen at an early stage, new solutions are also being tested taking in consideration those concerns.

As explained by Specialist Aaron Montemayor, “Many of these [IoT] solutions will come as a form of hardware to monitor IoT sensors, but many are cloud-based applications to monitor threats on multiple devices at once. The threats are enormous and not completely understood since its so new. Hackers could gain control over a car’s operating system or a hospital’s infrastructure and wreak havoc on everyday citizens.”

Conclusion

We all still bear in mind the 2017 attack to the NHS, in the UK, that compromised millions of patient’s records; or the recent security breach in Germany, committed by a 20-year-old student who got access to thousands of high-profiles data, including the one from the Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

The digitalised society in which we all live, has taken shape through the evolution of digital platforms that were not so concerned initially, with securing the information of its users. As such, millions of data (mostly from users) is now roaming across the web, with little, or in the best of the cases, outdated security, to stop hackers. Most importantly, this data is filled up with real people’s important digital information: telephone numbers, e-mail conversations, pictures, names and addresses… which have become crucial for their everyday operations, and one of the most important assets to trade with for large firms.

The cybersecurity solutions mentioned above aren’t the traditional ones. New complex threats require bigger and thorough solutions. It is not about building an impenetrable shield against hackers, but just making their job harder, so we all fee safer.

View all posts by Aghiath Chbib

Published by Aghiath Chbib

Results-oriented, adaptable, established executive equipped with 20 years of success driving global business in large, multimillion-dollar organizations and private start-ups. Extensive experience spearheading operations within complex, technology-driven environments ensuring adherence to organizational strategies and best practices. Expert at building and directing high- performing, cross-functional teams with a focus on leadership, collaboration, and continuous growth.
Business-minded visionary adept at leveraging technologies to achieve marketplace advantage and meet strategic goals and objectives. Dedicated to employing deep knowledge of industry-leading systems and processes while driving business impact, ROI, and performance. Technically-advanced, trusted professional and renowned expert in cybersecurity, AI, Blockchain, and digital forensics, as well Aghiath is an Author in Intelligenthq, bizcatalyst360, Openbusinesscouncil, and Hedgethink.
View all posts by Aghiath Chbib

Published
January 11, 2019February 11, 2019