Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
From Training End Users to Trusting No One – 4 Cybersecurity Trends to Watch for in 2021
By Laurence Cadieux, Community Manager, Devolutions
As we say goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021, we have dusted off our crystal ball to gaze into the future. Here are the four technology trends that we believe will shape the year ahead:
1. More Companies Flock to Cybersecurity Training Platforms
It has been said before – and is worth saying again – that end users are the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain. Sometimes, this vulnerability is due to ignorance or negligence (or a combination of both). Other times it is deliberate, as is the case with rogue insiders. Regardless of the cause, companies need to ensure that every member of their workforce, from executives to interns, has a fundamental understanding of how to protect accounts, files and data.
In 2021, we expect cybersecurity training platforms to play a leading role in closing this knowledge gap. Cybersecurity training platforms are online portals that provide end users with self-paced, skills-based threat detection and mitigation training in a live and dynamic simulated environment. What’s more, supervisors and managers can track each enrolled end user’s progress to provide supplemental training, or if necessary call out slackers who aren’t progressing through the curriculum.
2. SMBs Will Remain Under Siege by Hackers
In recent years, SMBs have become ground-zero for cybercrime. According to research by the Ponemon Institute, 80% of SMBs admit that malware has evaded their anti-virus software, and 66% of SMBs have experienced at least one cyberattack within the last 12 months.
Unfortunately, given the fact that hackers will keep doing something relentlessly until it stops working – they’re after money, not awards for creativity – in 2021 we expect things to get significantly worse for SMBs. And evidently, SMBs believe this as well. The Devolutions State of Cybersecurity in SMBs in 2020 survey found that 88% of SMBs are more concerned about the privacy and security of their data now than they were five years ago.
3. The Cloud Becomes a Safe Haven
For many years, companies hesitated to implement cloud projects because of security concerns. However, today the cloud is not just as safe as legacy on-premise data centers, but in some respects it is even more secure. For example, cloud service providers monitor security 24/7/365 and conduct ongoing penetration and vulnerability testing, which is a level of continuous scrutiny that many companies – especially SMBs with limited budgets and smaller IT staff – cannot provide. In addition, most cloud services have built-in security features, such as the ability to shut down any part of a system if a risk or threat is detected, along with app role-based authentication. Data can also be wiped remotely if machines are breached or stolen.
For all of these reasons, in 2021 we expect cloud adoption to accelerate – not just due to the significant cost, accessibility, collaboration and scalability benefits, but also because of the enhanced security, business continuity and data recovery advantages.
4. Zero Trust Becomes the Norm
With the rising frequency and cost of data breaches, knowing which end users to trust is more difficult than ever. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is now getting around 4,000 cybersecurity complaints a day, up from about 1,000 a day before the pandemic. The average cost of a data breach for a small-to-medium-sized business is $149,000 and the average price tag for bigger corporations now $3.9 million.
As a result, in 2021 we expect the paradigm to shift in many organizations – especially SMBs – from a “castle and moat” to a zero-trust approach, in which no end user is automatically trusted, regardless of whether they are behind the defense perimeter. Instead, prior to accessing privileged accounts or networks, end users must be authenticated through technologies such as MFA, IAM, encryption, analytics, and so on. If they pass the test they are allowed though. If not, then they are kept out.
Looking Ahead
OK, we admit it: we don’t have a crystal ball, and after a wild year like 2020 it’s a stretch to make any definitive predictions. Yet with this being said, we’re confident that the four trends highlighted above will shape and drive the technology narrative in the year ahead. As always, time will tell.
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About the Author
Laurence Cadieux, Community Manager on the Devolutions Marketing Team, manages social media accounts, writes articles for the Devolutions blog In the Trenches and helps the company’s community of IT pros get the information they need. Being a big fan of sci-fi series and movies, Laurence enjoys discussing and writing about new trends in the tech industry and, of course, Devolutions’ products and solutions.
