Of course, there is no surprise that several sources are looking into their respective crystal balls to predict the future (at least for 2017). I completed a google search for ” cyber security predictions 2017″ and got several results. For fun, I decided to compare the top 5 results in the table below (in a unscientific way). The top 3 trend categories are: 1) IoT; b) law enforcement; and c) ransomware.
The Takeaways
- Ensure your cyber intelligence function incorporates the review of credible sources for future trends
- Identify the most applicable trends to your organization, assess the risk for each one, and develop a plan
- Communicate trends to appropriate stake holders in your organization
| Trend | Trend Category | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Escalation of ad wars boost malware delivery | Ads | Y | ||||
| The explosion in fake adds and purchased likes erodes trust | Ads | Y | ||||
| Adaptive and behavior-based authentication grows in importance | Authentication | Y | ||||
| Behavioral technologies, such as pressure, typing speed and fingerprints, will be embedded into newly-released technologies | Behavioral analytics | Y | ||||
| Increasing number of cloud-based attacks cause vendors to double-down on security | Cloud | Y | ||||
| The mainstream move to the cloud and mobile computing will turn up the volume on demands for security that covers the expanding attack surface | Cloud, Mobile | Y | ||||
| Companies will struggle to adapt, understand and adjust to updates in privacy frameworks. | Compliance/Regulation | Y | ||||
| Compliance concerns drive growth in the endpoint and device market | Compliance/Regulation | Y | ||||
| Consumers and others will lobby more aggressively for protection. | Consumerism | Y | ||||
| Companies will fight back. | Counter hack | Y | ||||
| Cyber-offense and cyber-defense capacities will increase | Counter hack | Y | ||||
| The number of cyber-attacks will continue to grow almost in every industry. | Cyber attacks | Y | ||||
| Cyberbullying … it is an emergency | Cyberbullying | Y | ||||
| Cybercriminals focus on crypto currencies | Cybercriminals | Y | ||||
| Commercialized anti-DDoS will emerge | DDoS | Y | ||||
| Dronejacking places threats in the sky | Drones | Y | ||||
| Exploit kits, the hackers’ Swiss Army knife | Exploit Kits | Y | ||||
| Hacktivist expose privacy issues | Hacktivist | Y | ||||
| Internal threats will increase | Insider threat | Y | ||||
| With more hacktivism and nation-states sponsoring cybercrime, countries will have to consider “cyber arms treaties” to reverse the trend. | International Treaties | Y | ||||
| The Internet of Things (IoT) –everything from toy drones to routers – will come under government cyber security scrutiny and require manufacturers to tighten security. | IoT | Y | ||||
| Industrial IoT hacks will increase | IoT | Y | ||||
| IoT devices, a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands | IoT | Y | ||||
| IoT malware opens backdoor into the ome | IoT | Y | ||||
| We’ll see an increase in new vulnerabilities introduced through the Internet of Things (IoT). | IoT | Y | ||||
| A joint international effort to fight the cyber crime | Law enforcement | Y | ||||
| Cyber espionage: industry and law enforcement join forces | Law enforcement | Y | ||||
| Law enforcement takedown operations put a dent in cyber crime | Law enforcement | Y | ||||
| Machine learning accelerates social engineering attacks | Machine Learning/AI | Y | ||||
| The rise of Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning/AI | Y | ||||
| Mobile threats to include ransomware, RATs, compromised app markets | Mobile | Y | ||||
| The dramatic increase in Mobile threats | Mobile | Y | ||||
| Nation State Actors hacking and the urgency of norms of state behavior | Nation state actor | Y | ||||
| The first nation state cyber-attack will be conducted and acknowledged as an act of war | Nation state actor | Y | ||||
| The concept of passwords and password re-use will take front and center stage in home and business awareness | Passwords | Y | ||||
| Physical and cyber security industries join forces | Physical and cyber | Y | ||||
| Ransomware and extortion will increase | Ransomware | Y | ||||
| Ransomware subsides in second half of 2017 | Ransomware | Y | ||||
| Ransomware, one of the most dangerous cyber threats | Ransomware | Y | ||||
| Security will no longer be an afterthought | Security by design | |||||
| The security skills shortage will continue. | Skill shortage | Y | ||||
| Hardware and firmware threats an increasing target for sophisticated attackers | Sophisticated Attackers | Y | ||||
| Business security spending will increase | Spending | Y | ||||
| Threat intelligence sharing makes great strides | Threat Intelligence and sharing | Y | ||||
| Tor v2 comes online | Tor v2 | Y | ||||
| Continued exploits of known vulnerabilities | Vulnerabilities | Y | ||||
| Vuln exploits on Windows cool down as other platform heat up | Vulnerabilities | Y |
- 1.http://www.datacenterjournal.com/cybersecurity-trends-2017-companies-fight-back/
- http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/reports/rp-threats-predictions-2017.pdf
- http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/2017-cyber-security-predictions/#gref
- https://www.beyondtrust.com/blog/ten-cyber-security-predictions-2017/
- http://www.techrepublic.com/article/experts-predict-2017s-biggest-cybersecurity-threats/
Robert Rost 