Technology is always evolving, sometimes faster than it seems we can keep up! Over the past year we’ve witnessed rapid changes in how we all live and work, and naturally many security concerns have emerged in the wake of those shifts. These five emerging cybersecurity trends will continue to influence us over the coming months and years.
The rates of remote work will continue to increase. We once looked forward to the end of the pandemic and the “return to normal work”. Now we understand that remote work is the new normal. In fact, Peter Firstbrook, Gartner vice president and analyst, recently told attendees at Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2021 that the rates of remote work will continue to grow by about 30 percent over the next few years! So, there’s no imminent return to the past. Instead, we should anticipate and prepare for continuing security challenges related to remote work.
Cybersecurity mesh architecture. The use of cybersecurity mesh architecture (CSMA) will allow organizations to deploy security measures where they are most needed. Firstbrook said, “Distributed organizations will need to rethink their security architecture,” Firstbrook said. “Many companies are still focused on LAN or network-centric security, and they need to break out of that mold and make security much more composable and locate security where the asset is.”
Identity-first security. With more employees working remotely and via a cloud system, organizations must shift to a focus on identity access and management. Business operations are increasingly conducted on infrastructure that is not owned or managed by the company. Therefore, hackers are increasingly focusing on attacking identity security.
Machine-identity management. The Internet of Things, or the numerous devices which access a business cloud system or network, provide targeted entry points for malware. Organizations will increasingly focus on machine-identity management, to better control these potential liabilities.
Breach-and-attack simulation. What would happen to your organization, in the event that a cyber attack did occur? Breach-and-attack simulation tools, designed to simulate an attack and help you pinpoint weaknesses in your response, are currently hitting the market. In the near future, organizations will routinely run attack simulations to test their own systems.
The future of cybersecurity might seem scary in these times, but we prefer to think of emerging technologies as exciting! But we must all stay on top of our cybersecurity measures. Give us a call at 888-RING-MY-TECH to discuss your current protocol and options to upgrade your systems.