The technology is evolving at a much higher pace than ever and so are the cyber security threats. Everyone is curious to learn, what is next in cyber security. Well, no offense, I could even use the term “information security” here which is more acceptable to friends, but “cyber security” sells. May be, it has that FUD factor but industry needs to come out of being sold due to this factor and apply a wise thought on security investments. Unpleasant part is that even after so much of security awareness floating all around us, industry is still learning through hard and costly ways.

Before predicting the future, lets review our past. We could somehow overcome our obsession about APT term which has later been replaced by ransomware. Eventually, ransomware was not a new threat anyways and came into mainstream with the evolution of digital currencies like Bitcoin, though many still miss Liberty Reserve. Likewise, “bigdata” is no longer that big as we initially thought few years ago. “SoC” has become a must for organizations and actually has lately been deployed by more companies than in the past. Even though, wannabe SIEM products like Splunk existed ever since the beginning of it.

We have already seen a “bang bang” show on anti-state hacktivism (well, we can even call it state-sponsored shadow hacktivism) this year with many disclosures not requiring special mention here. Not to forget, banking sector and SWIFT was not spared and then blockchain is already under active adoption.

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning has been able to add that “wow” factor and again it “sells”, obviously it also solves some challenges which are beyond the human capabilities. Companies like DarkTrace, with all due respect, is doing really good and could eventually become a case study for rest of the cyber security companies. It was not just worth mentioning in this post, but its truly inspiring for companies like us and many more those care for innovation.

In 2017, we are certainly going to see a rapid landscape shift and few of those should be worth mentioning:

1. Most leading security product companies will add machine learning twist to their products, and so are we already doing at Torrid Networks.

2. At the same time, world will witness next-gen malware with an ability to bypass machine learning algos. There are already many case studies to fool the machines or so called AI.

3. We will even witness a surge in anti-state hacktivism and cyber security power-play among the nations. Furthermore, the journey towards smart cities shall be adventurous.

4. Blockchain for obvious reasons will actively be adopted at a much faster pace than we can predict.

5. Well, IOTs – how can we miss it! With Mirai botnet source code published by its kickin’ author, its already under mutation by many IOT botnet authors. It will add more to the DDoS threats and then threats from insecure deployments of IOTs exist even today. Securing Drones, Self-Driving Cars, wearable, home appliances, robots, will be termed as “security of things” and expertise shall be utilized more than before.

6. As companies attain maturity in SoC, demand for more is certain, obviously from the companies with a cyber security vision. Which will require inclusion of machine learning techniques in their SoC initiatives to increase their response capabilities.

7. Rising shift towards mobile exploitation has already been noted in 2016 and it will continue even further in 2017, with the cost of 0-day exploits acquisition going further up and targeting of mobile devices gaining momentum.

8. With adoption of cloud services reaching more than 70% by the businesses in near future, cloud security will attract more attention.

9. Cyber Extortion? – We have already sensed it and trend should further increase with world becoming smarter. Likewise, cyber insurance will also be significantly used than before.

10. Cyber security is evolving nearly everyday and we can’t predict everything! This point is left open for our evolution and learning from 2017!

Torrid Networks is a specialized cyber security company ……….………., cutting down the sales pitches! Say us “hi” and explore more on what we can do for your organization: info@torridnetworks.com