Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2024. Read them in this 16th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Securing 2024: Navigating the Transformative Shift in Security Technology with Proactive Measures and Enhanced Governance Regulations
By Fleming Shi, CTO of Barracuda
As technology evolves at a rapid pace, security
professionals are grappling with a dynamic threat landscape. While security
professionals remain vigilant to the adaptations in security technology and
potential threats, the challenge lies in anticipating the swift development,
evolution, and utilization of emerging technologies - a speed that holds
implications for both companies and potential attackers.
Simultaneously, security laws and regulations
continue to adapt to the transformation. Government initiatives to regulate
security technologies have made significant progress - adeptly keeping pace with the rapid evolution
of the technological landscape. The US must also be mindful of securing global
digital assets, filling the gap for bad actors. Stepping into 2024, security
professionals must find ways to promptly adapt to dynamic technological
changes. The need for a proactive response plays a crucial role in making
informed decisions on continual regulations for these technologies, while
effectively safeguarding and mitigating risks.
In
2024, English will become the best programming language for evil
It was no surprise that coming into 2023,
generative AI would be integrated into security stacks and solutions. However,
the big surprise was how quickly
generative AI has taken over the technology space. This is concerning as we
enter 2024 because, just as security professionals are using the new technology
to add to their defenses, bad actors are doing the same. LLMs are extremely
capable of writing code but often come with guardrails that prevent them from
writing malicious code. However, generative AI can be "fooled" into helping
threat actors anyway - particularly when it comes to sophisticated social
engineering techniques. Rather than telling the tool to create an email
phishing template, one only has to ask it to write a letter from a CEO asking
for payment for an invoice. The slight changes in phrasing make these tools
vulnerable, generally available, and extremely useful to bad actors everywhere.
Because this process is so easy, 2024 will be the year that English becomes the
best programming language for evil.
Laws
and Regulations Will Become Commonplace in 2024
Within just one month, the White House
released an Executive Order on artificial intelligence and
held its second annual International Counter Ransomware Summit. The Executive
order marks the government's most significant attempt to date at regulating the
evolving technology, and the summit resulted in 40 countries signing a pledge
to never pay ransom to cybercriminals. These major leaps have only occurred in
one month, let alone looking back on the whole year. In 2024, these laws and
regulations will continue to increase as we learn more about the potential of
these emerging technologies.
Cybersecurity
in 2024 Needs to Focus on Securing Asia from Bad Actors
Globally, there are over 4 million cybersecurity professionals needed
to adequately safeguard digital assets, and almost 1 million of them are in the
Asia-Pacific region. This fact alone should be largely concerning for cyber
professionals everywhere considering the vast reliance the US has on Asian
manufacturing. Securing the American supply chain inevitably means securing
Asia's supply chain, so I'm hoping that in 2024, the industry will help solve
this gap.
Winning
the Security Race: Adapting to Rapid Shifts in Technology - Looking Ahead
As we step into 2024, the landscape of
security technology will continue to undergo a transformative shift - fast.
Security organizations must prepare to win the race by adapting to the rapid
shift of technology, building proactive measures to prepare for the pervasive
influence of security changes such as shifts in generative AI and the
unexpected role of English in malicious programming. Simultaneously, evolving
security regulations call for the need for solidified governance regulations on
emerging technologies - ultimately marking 2024 the year for heightened
security and proactive measures.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
As Chief Technology Officer at Barracuda,
Fleming Shi leads the company's threat research and innovation engineering
teams in building future technology platforms to support Barracuda's broad
portfolio of products in security and data protection. Fleming has more than 20
patents granted or pending in network and content security.