Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
6 trends that are set to dominate Enterprise Cybersecurity in 2021
By Shitesh Sachan, white hat hacker and CEO of Detox
Technologies
Growing threats to
cybersecurity have made businesses all over the world far more aware of the
value of securing their data. As a result, the enterprise continues to invest
heavily in security, with worldwide spending hitting over $100 billion
annually, with the market expected to grow to $170 billion by 2022.
Yet, despite the renewed
focus and investment in cybersecurity, from an information security
perspective, plenty of questions remain unanswered. Breaches still make the
headlines on a regular basis and remain a constant reminder of the insecurity
of our sensitive data and privacy. So, what are the latest trends and hacker
tactics that we need to be aware of as we move into 2021? What risk do those
tactics pose? And how can we combat them? How can we, as individuals, help to
keep our data and our businesses data secure?
Danger associated with
IoT devices - IoT Link devices flourish for various reasons on the market and across
industries. The flexibility of IoT technology continues to drive its widespread
growth, with its contribution to business workflows among the primary
attractions of the technology to the enterprise. Enabling businesses to
innovatively deliver their products and services, saving time and money.
However, IoT devices also pose a wide range of security challenges, with
vulnerabilities including wireless communication, unencrypted personal
information, and vulnerable web interfaces, amongst others. Unfortunately,
there is little users can do to protect themselves against vulnerabilities in
IoT devices, apart from remembering to make sure they patch their devices at
the first opportunity.
Moving to cloud - Many organizations are
moving their digital assets into the cloud. When they are selecting a cloud
provider, they are likely to opt for providers who have specialist partners
securing the defences of their cloud-based offering. Organizations often
realize that for large-scale web app infrastructures, manual security
monitoring is impractical. They then review their approach to the security of
web applications. While a small
fragment of the cybersecurity, cloud safety platform sales are forecast to rise
to $460 million. Cloud-based security is affordable, performance-efficient.
Posing a higher intelligence threat and conforming with government and industry
requirements. Kaspersky Lab predicts that approximately 75% of businesses will
switch cloud applications and keep flourishing next year.
Mobile devices at risk - Mobile devices remain a
very high-probability subject for breaches. The amount of business data that we
store on our mobile devices is also very high, as they continue to be an
integral part of our daily working lives. As a result, mobile devices continue
to play a huge role in the ever-growing number of data breaches. Securing
vulnerability management or pen-testing methods through web application
infrastructure can help to detect and resolve security problems. However, ensuring your remote working teams take the
following steps can also help:
- Locking your phone regularly.
- Setting strong, and regularly changing, your
passwords.
- Ensuring your operating system is up to date.
- Only using secure WIFI connections.
- Only downloading apps or data from trusted
sources.
- Encrypting your data.
- Install Anti-Virus Software.
The cost of data
violations - Data violations will continue to haunt us. The total cost of data
infringements for global businesses in 2020 stands at almost $4 million per
company. With CCPA fines for a breach costing up to $7,500 per record. The
common target for many of these violations is personal data. An attacker can
change their methodology and choose a planned attack on the site's data instead
of simply following their personal data. Either way, this can hurt individuals
or groups for a long time, provided that the data integrity is in jeopardy.
Data breaches can spread quickly too. Affecting multiple victims in no time at
all. According to a report from Capgemini, AI can effectively
prevent these data breaches by proactively anticipating the malicious patterns
and anomalies, and enhance the security of critical infrastructure. 2021 could be the year that cybersecurity is
reinvented by Artificial
Intelligence.
Lack of skills and
expertise - A global lack of skilled cybersecurity experts continues to make
businesses an attractive target for hackers. The significant skills shortages
identified by the World Economic Forum in 2017 persist. With Cybersecurity Ventures reporting that 3.5
million cybersecurity jobs will remain unfilled across the globe in 2021.
Security training institutions will be oversubscribed next year, while
businesses attempt to fill the gaps by internal training with customized
programs that suit the company's needs.
Requirement for cyber
insurance - The need for cyber insurance for both small to medium-sized and large
businesses will continue to be a priority given the growth of cyber threats
across the global economy. It will therefore play an important role in
operational risk strategies in 2021. Insurance companies will nevertheless need
to customize their products based on their customers' diverse safety and
security requirements, and not only cover existing risks. An aggregated $11.5
million was lost in 2019 due to cyber hacks. It would not be a surprise if
cyber insurance doubles or triples by the end of 2021.
Cyber security trends
will primarily focus on improving and improving safety violations, hacking, and
phishing measures in 2021. Proper cyber-security training and the thorough
management of vulnerability and security need to form an important part of IT
programs in every organization, irrespective of its size, to ensure adequate
protection.
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About the Author
Shitesh Sachan - Detox's founder and CEO

Shitesh Sachan is a white hat hacker and a Certified
Information Security Auditor (CISA) with over 20 years' experience. Before
founding Detox, Shitesh lead security at hCentive, a US healthtech company, who
protected Obamacare, amongst other global projects. In his wider remit as an
ethical hacker, Shitesh has identified security vulnerabilities within some of
the world's largest platforms, including: Amazon, LinkedIn, WhatsApp,
Shutterstock, Medlife, Dominos and Pizza hut. Shitesh is a published author and
has recently been awarded ‘Hall of fame' status by the World Security Council
for identifying security flaws in their system.