Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2018.  Read them in this 10th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Contributed by Carolyn Raab, VP of Product Management at Corsa

4 Trends in Network Security Automation and Adaptive Response

We have seen some very interesting trends in the network security market recently with the types and sophistication of attacks clearly increasing. All the while our customers are dealing with greater connectivity and traffic demands on the network. Managing this traffic while also protecting the network can quickly get out of control. Combine this with the fact that so many security technology companies are rigid in their approach, saying you have to protect this way or that way, where to start and what to expect can be a challenge. A trend we see is automation across a network of disaggregated network security devices to decrease security risk and add a new level of control and protection. Below are four trends we see in the market that we expect to impact large enterprise organizations, web-scale cloud and internet providers, as well as large cities in 2018.

Cybersecurity Evolves

Attack vectors will evolve due to increased connectivity to the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud and mobile. Attack complexity will follow the same growth pattern only compounding the challenges. New skills will be required to help manage future attacks including adaptive, automated solutions that can manage the day to day maintenance. This creates more time for security professionals to be creative and build adaptable skills that can meet future challenges.

Prediction: Enterprise organizations will look to improve network intelligence through automated or adaptive response architectures creating new levels of defense to control traffic in less intrusive ways, across the network. Whether they leverage artificial intelligence or simply improved analysis of data because the data is presented in better ways, they can quickly close the loop on actionable network security. Through automated systems, security professionals will then enter into the world of proactive security versus reactive.

Multi-Vector Attacks Become More Targeted and More Frequent

There has been a disturbing increase in the make-up of volumetric attacks over the past year. Multi-vector attacks made up of 3 or 4 different attack vectors are becoming common, and can scale up to include many more different attack vectors.  They are very difficult to defend with traditional approaches due to the mix of attack vectors constantly changing. Add to this an ever-increasing volume of good internet traffic driven by video and 5G, predictably organizations internet links are getting saturated leading to catastrophic network failure and downed services.

Prediction: The frequency and size of multi-vector attacks will increase, but so will the innovations and methods to mitigate these attacks. Creative approaches and technologies like security automation and threat intelligence driven by artificial intelligence will help large enterprise companies find new avenues to protect and mitigate these attacks. Additionally, services like DDoS Protection as a Service will grow in acceptance and usage augmented by innovative, specialized gateway protection.

The Dawn of Threat Intelligence Gateways

Despite spending more than $80B annually on security measures, the past 16 months have seen network outages of unprecedented proportions, with more than 1 billion crucial records lost to data breaches. With billions of IP addresses, how many should have access to the network and its assets? Current approaches filter and manage every part of the traffic, the good, bad and of course the ugly. By managing and filtering everything the process becomes complicated and overwhelming. What is on the horizon to help with these attacks?

Prediction: A new breed of security solutions called Threat Intelligent Gateways will emerge as organizations need to stop the increasing volume of threats. This perimeter protection provides an opportunity for regional carriers, hosting & service providers and CDNs to create more value for their customers. Ultimately, the Threat Intelligence Gateways will deliver better-managed network traffic and provide a powerful dynamic security perimeter that scales with threats from outside sources.

Smart Cities Require Scalable Security Perimeters

Smart Cities are not new, many communities have embraced the benefits of better connectivity to read meters, manage electricity, water and other parts of the community's infrastructure. New innovations like artificial intelligence and machine learning will play a role in these Smart Cities. According to Gartner by 2020, at least one major safety incident will be caused by an IT security failure, leading to significant injury. With everything connected the opportunity for security risks and attacks becomes more and more complex. Compound this with the fact that these "Smart City" solutions are disparate proprietary technologies. All of this makes it hard to predict the overall risk and threat level that can occur. For example, when a major catastrophe happens within a community, being able to instantly scale a security perimeter can be very hard without the right standards and capabilities.

Predictions: In the coming year we expect to see standards developed and put in place to ensure that all "Smart City" technologies include management and security functionality and connectivity. With so many proprietary technologies in the mix, having a standards-based approach will help ensure the technologies function as expected and keep to a safe protocol. Additionally, dynamic security perimeter technologies will take the lead in helping bridge this gap so communities can quickly scale to meet whatever issues or disasters occur.

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About the Author

With over 25 years industry experience in the networking and communications industry, Carolyn brings to Corsa sales, marketing, product management, and business development experience in networking and security markets. Having worked in both established companies and startups, she is able to conceptualize, design and execute winning business and product strategies in any organization.

Carolyn holds a BSc Electrical Engineering degree from Queen's University (Kingston, ON).