Cybersecurity is going to be of greater interest in 2019 as private cloud, blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) adoptions are becoming mainstream

According to Gartner, cloud system infrastructure services are now the fastest-growing sector of the market. In addition, Bain expects IoT markets are predicted to double in 2021, amassing a whopping US$520 billion.

With the increasing use of cloud services and various IoT devices, the challenges companies face to secure and protect their sensitive data are rising congruently.

HyperSphere.ai, a globally decentralized cyber secure platform for new economy, describes five key cybersecurity challenges that businesses will have to overcome in order to stay ahead of the curve in the upcoming year.

So, what are the major factors defining our cybersecurity space in 2019?

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Most of the challenges related to general privacy would be GDPR specific.

Since May 2018, GDPR has been a dramatic shift in the way the European Union wants personal data to be managed.

Next year, businesses will be paying more attention to the adjustments of some processes or implementation of new ones in order to be GDPR compliant. They will be focusing on things like where the data is stored via the cloud provider, how the data can be transferred or how to assess security measures the cloud provider has taken.

On the other hand, it will be a crucial step forward for the regulators to make GDPR policies more transparent and applicable to the internet environment so business can obey the rules easily.

Use of blockchain in security technology

The opportunities that blockchain opens up to the world of cyber-security are growing in number.

However, blockchain technology is already one of the best tools to prevent data substitution as it is shared over a peer-to-peer network whereby every user can track all the data.

Thus, to corrupt the blockchain completely, hackers will need to access almost all the devices connected to the network (depending on consensus protocol).

As this is virtually impossible, unharmed computers will continue to check the data for consistency.

In 2018 Blockchain was a strong trend, but few real-economy projects were implemented.

This year, more blockchain projects will develop their business models and there might be a boom in blockchain-based security solutions.

Artificial intelligence identifying potential breaches

Next year, businesses will be exploring the possibilities that AI offers to accurately predict potential cyber-security and virus attacks.

By processing big amounts of data related to user activity, AI can identify and show inconsistencies in subtle patterns like workplace habits and information consumption that may help avert a potential cyber-attack.

A lot of companies will be exploring such opportunities to predict small changes in user behaviour to prevent a potential data leak from ever happening.

Strengthening security measures in public cloud

The private cloud has become a recent trend because of its setup — dedicating itself to a single client thus providing higher security than a public cloud situation that has multiple users.

As more and more users migrate to private cloud, public clouds are looking for better ways to ensure security.

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Some small and medium-sized enterprises, who cannot afford to build a private cloud, have to use public cloud, where major security threats are still unsolved.

For public cloud, this means they will start investing more in new security tools in order to overcome the challenges of being less secure than the private ones.

Hopefully, we will get to see new ways of authentication or data encryption, leaving gaps for the attackers to use, in 2020.

A reinvention of identity management

Till date, there is still no efficient solution that can completely change the game in the identity management space — we use passwords so far.

Enterprises are looking for solutions that provide advanced authentication services, such as geographical restrictions or two-factor authentication since managing identity in a cloud computing environment is increasingly complex.

In general, all identification ways that exist now are only in the initial stages of becoming a truly convenient and ultimately safe identification mechanism that can be applied for the majority of businesses.

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In the coming stages, passwords might be replaced with something like biometric-based certificates that will open up a new chapter in identity management.

Ponemon Institute’s “2018 Cost of Data Breach” study reveals that the data breach average cost is equal to US$3.86 million.

Cybersecurity failures will have even bigger consequences this year, which will be measurable in terms of finances and significant revenue losses — some even possibly ending with hearings at court.

All the security challenges reveal that it’s even more important to know that data is one of the most valuable business assets.

To avoid spending money fixing the consequences of data breaches, many companies will be investing in reinventing their approach to cybersecurity by applying new tools and finding effective ways to secure data.

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