Security leaders predict next year’s top trends, challenges and risks – technical debt, credential stuffing and access control are highlighted
As we meet the third decade of the 21st century, Infosecurity Europe, Europe’s number one information security event, has once again asked its community of C-level security professionals what they think the year ahead has in store. The list includes a range of challenges, opportunities, and broader trends across technology, business and the world.
Many of the CISOs highlighted the risks presented by emerging technologies that are expected to become more widely adopted in 2020. Deloitte cyber risk partner, Peter Gooch, says: “2020 will see more deployment of security automation tools. Where this is done well, it will allow organisations to adapt rapidly to changing attack tactics. Where it is done poorly, it will be more complicated to unpick.
“There will be a drive for more transparency when contracting for cloud services, with vendors required to expose more data and events for consumption by SIEM tools, and to evidence security practices and capabilities closer to real-time. Hackers are increasingly targeting unstructured data to hide and launch attacks, so the priority is to implement robust governance.
“More than 100 companies worldwide will begin testing private 5G by the end of 2020, which could increase the attack surface, making data flows harder to follow and the job of those responsible for securing them more challenging.”
Mark D. Nicholls, Head of Information Security & Governance at housing association, Peabody, flags up vulnerabilities with AI and IoT. “Machine learning has established itself in 2019, and we will begin to move to true AI in 2020, but one must remember whatever can be used for good can also be used by the criminals. Imagine a DDOS attack powered by true AI,” he warns.
“As consumers strive for a smarter, more connected world we will see more attacks targeting connected devices as a means to an end. This is not new, but the attack surface will get bigger. We must continue to educate to ensure humans are our strongest line of defence.”
