Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2019. Read them in this 11th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by Shane Buckley, President and Chief Operating Officer, Gigamon
Prepare for Continued Data Explosion
The year 2018 was a critical turning point for
cybersecurity. With breaches impacting well-known brands including Marriott,
Panera and UnderArmour, cybersecurity awareness -- specifically around data
security -- finally gained importance amongst consumers, organizations and the
boardroom alike. As we welcome in the new year, we are bound to see a
continuation of both small scale and massive, historic data breaches, but let's
take out the crystal ball to see what else we can expect in the world of
networking, social media and security amidst the data explosion in 2019:
The
Future of Networking
As cyber criminals continue carrying out
sophisticated, large scale attacks, there's a simultaneous explosion of data
moving across the network. In 2019, organizations need to evolve to be able to
accommodate this data explosion -- or risk falling behind. As the saying goes,
"slow is the new down," so it's time for businesses to accelerate the need for
speed when optimizing their network.
In 2019, organizations will begin prioritizing
the optimization of their entire network for performance and security due to
increased traffic and a growing demand for bandwidth. As a result, we'll see
increased 5G network build out which will drive significant investments in
LAN/WAN infrastructure.
Social
Media's Data Implications
Along with data explosion, 2018 was also the
year when data privacy took center stage, and Facebook's rising star came
crashing down. In 2019, we will continue to pay close attention to social media
data, and what organizations do with such personal data will be evaluated under
a microscope. Not only will social media companies be impacted, but this will
also cause enterprises to evaluate their own use of social media and the data
accessible through these channels. Given the current loose laws in place, next
year, we'll also hear preliminary discussions of applicable laws at a regional
level, like GDPR and other legislature that moved forward this past year.
The
State of Security
One thing will remain a
constant in 2019 - cyber criminals will continue to go after sensitive data
throughout the ongoing data explosion. Specifically, nation-state threat actors
will continue to wreak havoc as the driver behind most major data breaches in
2019. The role of the nation-state, however, will become more challenging. In
the new year, North Korea will become more daring
as the White House turns their heads to focus on finding a solution to nuclear
weaponry. These factors, and more, are bound to have large brands and government
organizations on edge when it comes to cybersecurity, as no one wants to face
the public scrutiny following a major data breach.
Beyond nation-states, we
will continue to see successful attacks carried out by spear phishing. In fact,
spear phishing will also become more targeted than ever before as personal data
becomes more generally available on the dark web. Due to
this uptick in spear phishing, we will begin to see the rise of even more
specialist tools for both network operations (NetOps) and security operations
(SecOps) teams, which in turn,
will require greater optimization of the network as well as security.
Is Your Organization Ready?
Overall, 2018 has its highlights and lowlights
when it came to cybersecurity. While we moved forward with regulations such as
GDPR, organizations demonstrated the difficulties in adjusting to such
legislation. In addition, data breaches from nation states and other actors
continued to permeate the news cycles, and we can expect more of this for years
to come. 2018 proved that the need for improved detection, response and privacy
is driving the demand for security products and services, in response to
security risks, business needs and industry changes. In 2019, we can expect
this continued demand given the increasing amount of data that passes through
an organization each and every day. Is your business ready for this data
explosion, or is it time to make it your New Year's resolution?
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About the Author
Shane Buckley is
President and Chief Operating Officer of Gigamon with responsibility for
expanding the company's business and markets worldwide. He brings more than 20
years of executive management experience to the team and joins Gigamon from
Xirrus where he was CEO prior to its 2017 acquisition by Riverbed Technology.
Prior to that, Shane served as the General Manager and Senior Vice President at
NETGEAR, where he led its commercial business unit to 50 percent revenue growth
over two years. Before NETGEAR, Shane was President and CEO of Rohati Systems,
a leader in cloud-based access management solutions, and COO at Nevis Networks,
a leader in secure switching and access control. Shane is a graduate of
engineering from the Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland.