Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2024. Read them in this 16th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
AI Will Power an Evolving Threat Landscape
By Findlay Whitelaw, Field CTO at Securonix
As we prepare to ring in the new year, there’s no doubt that cyber security professionals will once again have their hands full. 2023 was a challenging year for security teams as they juggled managing legacy and emerging threats powered by AI. Here’s a rundown of the emerging threats and challenges cybersecurity teams will face in 2024:
2023 trends will continue to cause trouble.
While new threats will emerge in 2024, cyber security professionals should also be prepared to deal with a lot more of the same in the new year. That means more AI-powered attacks, which can be countered by evolving AI-driven threat detection software. It also means that popular attack targets, like remote work systems and supply chains, will remain at risk.
Targeted attacks will hit the usual suspects, with infrastructure at an increased risk.
Cybercriminals will likely continue to target the usual, lucrative suspects with ransomware and other attack tactics in 2024. Cyber criminals typically see sectors as cash cows including healthcare, banking and finance, energy, technology and communications, and e-commerce. Beyond these core targets, infrastructure and government organizations are at an increased risk this year. With rising global instability and several major ongoing international conflicts, bad actors will likely turn to cyber-attacks to create economic disruption and instability that suits their agendas.
Public-private collaboration will help shape the future of AI.
Generative AI-related technologies took the world by storm in 2023, and AI models will only grow more advanced in the new year. Governments worldwide are already working to get ahead of this new technology, and 2024 will be defined by collaboration between the private and public sectors. This collaboration will focus on fairly regulating AI and establishing safeguards that prevent bad actors from utilizing the technology for “evil.”
Organizations will have to separate fact from fiction when it comes to AI.
While generative AI will greatly impact security teams in 2024, the suggestion that it will make all human workers redundant is not based in reality. Instead of replacing human workers, AI will excel in handling large volumes of data and performing repetitive tasks at speed and accuracy (increasing productivity and efficiencies). So high volume, repetitive tasks may shift to automation and AI. However, AI lacks emotional intelligence and the ability to understand content in complex decision-making. Humans are critical for tasks that require judgment and ethical considerations and where there is a need for contextual or nuanced understanding. Therefore, AI will free up human time for more strategic thinking, leading to new job creation/tasks.
Good security hygiene can protect organizations from whatever 2024 brings.
As we look ahead to 2024, there are plenty of ways organizations can update their responses to cyber threats. Operational response, including continued investments in access control, incident response, and patch management, will greatly increase an organization’s security posture and help keep employees safe. Privacy and ethics should sit at the center of any cyber security program and focusing on these values will be a net positive for security hygiene. This time of year, taking the time to reprioritize organizational risks is also smart. With a growing horizon of AI-powered threats, it makes sense to take stock of where things stand now and make the needed adjustments. Another important and often overlooked part of an organization’s cyber security posture is the human element. Well trained employees can create a human firewall against cyber-attacks.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Findlay Whitelaw works as Securnoix’s Field CTO. She joined the company as Senior Director of the Insider Threat Program in January 2023. Before joining Securonix, Findlay worked at a large UK-based financial services organization where she was responsible for running the Joint Security Operations Centre, including physical and cyber 24/7 operations, as well as Threat Hunting, DLP, Insider, eDiscovery, Business Engagement, and Operational Governance Teams. In addition, she sponsored the broader Insider Threat Program, designing, deploying, and operationalizing insider threat strategies. Throughout her tenure, Findlay held several senior leadership roles, including responsibility for DLP operations, DLP & UBA Technical Development, DLP & Insider Threat Projects, Security Operations Strategy & Governance, and Insider Threat Investigations.
