2016 Security Forecast: Decoding the Adversary
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2016 Security Forecast: Decoding the Adversary
Cyber-crimes continue to plague large enterprises, small businesses and the health-care industry in particular—and 2016 has more security challenges in store. -
DDoS Attacks Expected to Rise
DDoS are attackers' favorite tool. There may be an increase in hacktivism, and threat intelligence will start playing a huge role in defending against DDoS campaigns. -
Small Businesses and Institutions Will Be Targeted
Just as businesses embrace analytics, so do hackers. Now they do not just have to target large organizations because they can get equally valuable data elsewhere. That means smaller organizations will be affected. -
Cyber-Crime Black Market Will Expand
Corporate boards are starting to recognize that the cyber-crime black market is growing. As a result, there is a rise in risk management and awareness at the C level of cyber-security related risks, which will continue to grow. -
Health Care Faces More Threats
Attacks in the health-care sector will increase because these companies have valuable information. Legacy systems and networks, reliance on service providers and emerging technology adoption will also make health care an attractive target. -
Organizational Silos Will Disappear
Enterprises will start removing silos in order to improve security, awareness, communication and interoperation. Accountability for security will be shared. -
Use of Threat Intelligence Will Rise
Businesses will become more proactive in their security defenses and use threat intelligence more. Managed security will continue to grow. -
Cloud Attacks Will Expand
Security attacks on the cloud will grow more serious and widespread in 2016, affecting large and midsize businesses. This will lead to more effective cloud controls and security to better protect critical data. -
Recovery Costs Will Rise
With the rise in cloud attacks will come an increased focus on very secure cloud networking solutions. -
Five Questions CEOs Should Ask About Cyber-Security
Is your board of directors fully engaged in cyber-security? When did you and your board review your last risk assessment? What makes you a target for attacks? What data is leaving your company, and is it secure? Have you provided your security organization all the tools and resources needed to help prevent a security breach?
Cyber-crime continues to impact businesses and has increased 48% since 2013, with businesses contending with 43 million known security incidents, according to a report released by AT&T. The report, "Cyber Security Insights Report," the carrier's first such study, found that during the last two years, DDoS attacks increased 62%, and there was a 458% increase in the number of times hackers searched for Internet of things (IoT) vulnerabilities. The theme of this report is decoding the adversary. AT&T expects to cover the IoT, mobile devices, virtualized security and other trends as they emerge. "Security is not simply a CIO, CSO or IT department issue," said AT&T Senior Executive Vice President John Donovan. "Breaches, leaked documents and cyber-security attacks impact stock prices and competitive edge. It is a responsibility that must be shared amongst all employees, and CEOs and board members must proactively mitigate future challenges." On the basis of its findings, AT&T has made the following predictions about cyber-security for 2016 and suggests questions every CEO should ask.