Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2024. Read them in this 16th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
2024 Predictions: AI, DevSecOps, and More
By Sergej Dechand, CEO & Co-Founder, Code Intelligence
2023 has been an incredibly disruptive year for the technology industry, in large part due to the rapid adoption and expansion of artificial intelligence (AI). Much like cloud computing technology brought major changes to the way software is developed and deployed, AI is bringing about a similar level of disruption and change to software. With this in mind, I expect AI to leave its mark on the year to come as well. Here are my top predictions for 2024:
Increase In AI Coding Tool Usage
In 2024, there will be a significant increase in the adoption of AI coding tools. Recent improvements in AI-powered coding platforms, such as GitHub Copilot, will lead to faster adoption of these tools by developers. Initial studies have shown the help of AI coding tools tends to produce more insecure code than humans alone, which is cause for concern. Regardless of how secure or vulnerable the code might be, however, I expect the output of individual developers will multiply with the support of AI coding tools, enhancing efficiency and productivity and leading to a world with even more code and software to secure.
Attackers Leveraging AI
On the flip side of the coin, while AI will help developers write code, it may also be used by malicious actors for cyber attacks. In 2024, we are likely to see more automated attacks on APIs and web applications. Attackers have already begun leveraging generative AI into their workflows to generate shellcode and working exploits. We can expect these activities to become more sophisticated and more frequent in the year to come.
Security Regulations Fall Short
As the cyber threat landscape continues to evolve, so too must security programs, policies, and regulations. Despite increased security regulations across many industries in the past few years, these new policies are not enough to keep up with the pace of technology and as a result, 2024 will see even more severe cyber incidents. AI-enhanced software attacks will reveal the shortcomings of the compliance-led ‘check-the-box’ security approach of most current regulations and compliance frameworks. These frameworks and policies require no technical measures to improve security inside an application and do not take into account the complexity of modern application development. Despite a few exceptions, these regulations alone will be insufficient to keep up with the growing number of threats.
DevSecOps Adoption
Lastly, 2024 will be the year in which DevSecOps becomes the norm. Even more conservative industries, such as Automotive and MedTech, will embrace bug and vulnerability detection during development. As these industries are moving to software-defined everything (SDx), even vehicles, which are constantly connected via APIs and push over-the-air software updates, they must evolve to modern development and security practices (DevSecOps). Regardless of industry, recent developments have made DevSecOps more important than ever before.
2023 has been a pivotal year for technology. As other technology advancements have done before, AI has drastically changed our lives in the past year. Not just for those privy to the tech world, but for people of every demographic, all around the world. I believe that 2024 will be another historic year with regard to AI innovation, adoption, and regulations, yet again leading the way.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sergej is the CEO and Co-Founder of Code Intelligence. From a young age, he was fascinated by coding. Today, he looks back on more than 15 years of industry experience in software development, testing, and IT security. Before founding Code Intelligence, he worked as an IT consultant in the automotive industry and as a project manager at Fraunhofer FKIE. With this mix of technical expertise and business savvy, he has been striving to make the world’s information and critical infrastructures more secure ever since.
