10 Data Security Predictions for 2020

The internet is an increasingly important part of our lives, with innovation at all time highs.

At the same time, companies are logging more and more data about us every day.

This means security is getting increasingly important.

Experts note that data threats could reach new complexities in the future, and that adequate technological advancements will be required if we are going to stem the surge in attacks.

With recent studies showing a hacker attack every 39 seconds, data security must be a priority.

Data security experts and scientists predict that by 2020 there will be a number of changes in the world of security.

Let’s go through 10 predictions for 2020.

1. Shadow IT personnel will account for a significant portion of IT breaches

Companies often fail to focus on building a culture of acceptance and protecting their IT department resources. Building a culture of protection and detection, rather than focusing on punishment, is an important part of protecting companies from the risk of security breaches.

2. As many as 99% of security threads could be from vulnerabilities that an enterprise is already aware of

Fixing these vulnerabilities is an important step, however all too often they go unnoticed and even though they have been found and published online, there is little initiative taken to solve them. Solving vulnerabilities as soon as they are identified means that the company pays less, and is faced with a lower level of risk.

The eCommerce team at Tierra Alma rely on their website to bring in leads and provide a service, so they explain that “getting into a habit of checking for vulnerabilities and then actually taking action to fix them is imperative. Doing this saves us a lot of stress and money.”

3. More companies will form their own data security governance programs over the coming years.

Demand for protection from data breaches is increasing and is likely to continue to increase over the coming years. The foundations have been laid to bridge the current gaps in security, but enterprises are not yet strong enough to weather the rise in attacks that Gartner is expecting.

Taking the time to identify policy gaps is an important step and one that will help companies to improve their overall security. Cyber insurance is a worthwhile investment and one that many enterprises are starting to investigate.

4. Native mobile containment will become more common

In 2019, the number of organisations that used native mobile containment increased from 20 percent to 60 percent.

Many enterprises used to rely on third-party options, but these are not adequate for the challenges that companies now face. Organisations with lower security needs may not find this to be necessary, but native containment solutions have a lot of value for companies that see more serious threats or that process a lot of data.

5. Around 40% of organisations will purchase developed applications for their DevOps

Applications developed using self-testing, self-diagnosing and self-protection technologies will become more popular with organisations. This upcoming trend will see companies that engage in DevOps making use of runtime application self-protection, or RASP.

RASP alone is unlikely to be enough to protect businesses, and they may need to start evaluating less mature providers to find better security options and strengthen the data security enjoyed by their enterprise.

6. 80 percent of new cloud-based access security deals will include numerous security features, potentially from different vendors

Security firewalls may include a web application firewall, a secure web gateway, and a network firewall. Consumer migration to the crowd is something that still intimidates some people, but it is an important part of the roadmap for the future.

It is important that businesses evaluate their CASB investments, to ensure that they are ready for any potential security threats, and also so that they know whether CASB is really something that their enterprise needs to invest in.

7. Around half of all companies dealing with Internet of Things device manufacturing will struggle with their security

Weak authentication processes are something that causes problems for IoT device makers. Poor authentication practices are a major source of security vulnerabilities for Internet-connected devices and this is one avenue where attackers are looking for opportunities.

This creates new threats, and also revives old ones as more and more IoT devices are added to networks which may have otherwise been thought of (rightly or wrongly) as secure.

Companies would do well to make use of metrics to evaluate the risk of each device on their network, and think twice before connecting unknown devices to a production network that stores valuable data.

8. New recognition technologies will reduce the use of passwords by around 50%

Passwords are something that many businesses rely on, but they are not always secure. Users write passwords down, forget them, and share them.

Biometrics and facial recognition are becoming increasingly popular as a way of unlocking devices and allowing people to access medium-security areas. The use of this kind of metric will become increasingly common, and could reduce a lot of the security threats posed by passwords.

9. Around 25% of attacks will stem from the IoT by the end of 2020

The IoT will be the underlying vulnerability for a quarter if all attacks, yet be the focus of just 10 percent of company security budgets in 2020

IoT use is becoming more common but usability is being prized over security all too often, putting companies and users at risk and making it hard for security workers to identify the best choices when it comes to what tech to use.

Increasing the portion of the security budget that is allocated to the IoT and focusing on finding better devices to invest in would be a good starting point for developing a robust IoT approach.

According to the e-commerce team at Tow and Line “Having a strong security budget makes a world of difference. Ever since we increased the budget of our various security devices, the amount of attacks have decreased dramatically.”

10. Identity as a service application will start to replace Identity Access Management as an on site application in 40% of companies

The limitations of IDaaS are being reduced and the system is becoming more flexible but it still has flaws.

Smaller companies are best positioned to adopt IDaas at the momentz but it needs to be implemented carefully. Data security should be at the forefront of every company’s IT policy to protect both the company itself and the data that they work with for the benefit of their customers.

What will you be doing to protect your data in 2020?

If you need a helping hand with protecting your data you should attend the upcoming 8th CISO Leaders.  Summit at Crown, Melbourne where there will be over 200 CISOs, CIOs and technology leaders in attendance.

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