4 Cybersecurity Trends to Watch in 2018

In spite of the growing cybersecurity awareness across most organisations, 2017 presented us with some of the worst international cyber attacks to date, affecting even some of the greatest corporations. Consequently, it is expected that CIOs and security professionals alike will begin to proactively develop more reformed approaches to cybersecurity within their organisations. Below is a list of some of the predicted security trends for 2018:

1. Focus will be turned to cloud security

   Though in a continuously developing state, the cloud environment has become a commonly used tool in many organisations, something that has pushed hackers to take it upon themselves to leverage in their breach attempts. In response, cybersecurity professionals are shifting their focus to establishing a set of policies for cloud use in their organisations. Such policies determine how employees can use the cloud (both public and private) through cloud decision models that can help them mitigate security risks. In addition, organisations will begin to rely more on SaaS products.

2. Adoption of the Zero Trust approach

   Trust is extremely hard to earn, and even then, it is easily lost, and his belief is currently being channeled into the security approaches of many organisations. The Zero Trust security technique attempts to minimise vulnerabilities by implementing stricter authentication and verification processes. It leverages multiple levels of credentials in order to verify whether a user does in fact have authorised access to a system or not. Not only does this technique not trust people, but it also remains cautious of both internal and external networks. The Zero Trust approach promotes network segmentation and the assessment of all traffic in real time through the use of technologies that can provide the organisation with more visibility and an assessment of incoming and outgoing traffic.

3. Adoption of deception technologies

   Most organisations have come to terms with the fact that complete protection from cyberware is nearly impossible, causing them to pivot their approach to deception technologies. Such tools aim to put off hackers by introducing a large number of fake credentials into an organisation's systems, making it almost impossible for for cybercriminals to access a correct set of user or customer data. When a hacker attempts to use fake credentials to access the system, the security team is alerted and can immediately activate their incident response plan. Additionally, deception technologies make identifying the hacker's breach path possible to assess their breach technique. While deception technologies are not a new invention, improved security strategies within this concept are expected to change things.

4. Outsourcing of cybersecurity services

   Due to the lack of human talent in the cybersecurity industry, the increase of security outsourcing is an expected trend. Organisations are finding it more difficult to form in-house teams that are capable of effectively protecting business networks. Consequently, businesses will turn to third party vendors and service providers for the safety of their systems.