Privacy to Drive Evolution of Threat Landscape in 2016

Echoworx predicts government action will force jurisdictional shopping

Echoworx predicts that businesses are going to be putting security technologies at the top of their Christmas lists in order to cope with the rapidly changing threat landscape in 2016.

“Data breaches are the new normal. IT departments have to tackle constantly evolving security threats and many are struggling to keep up. Users continue to be the biggest threat to enterprise wide security, and in 2016, we’ll see a shift towards smart interoperable security tools which take the decision of what and when to encrypt out of their hands,” said Greg Aligiannis, Security Director, Echoworx.

He continued, “on the consumer side, The Investigatory Powers Bill proposed by the UK government has sent a message globally that governments have the right to snoop on people’s personal data. Expect pushback; people are going to start storing and transmitting their data through channels that are out of the government’s reach.”

Here are five things Echoworx expects to impact the global security landscape in 2016:

1. Internet of Things Security will become cyber criminals’ playground
   The ever-growing Internet of Things phenomenon is a real concern for business, as every device that’s added to the network creates potential security vulnerability. It’s no longer just about smartphones and tablets when your car, thermostat and security cameras provide an open invitation for cybercrime. For privacy to be protected, employing an intelligent security solution is vital. IoT devices need to be ring-fenced from critical systems in a way that strikes a balance between facilitating connectivity and not allowing criminals unfettered access to in-the-clear data that could be breached via a flawed IoT device.
2. Government intrusion will force jurisdictional shopping
   The announcement of November’s Investigatory Powers Bill by the UK government is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the state’s invasion of citizens’ privacy. We’re going to see more countries follow the UK which will cause a public backlash. If the government continues to ask for backdoors, the public will want to give up less and start to move away from those jurisdictions where privacy is being eroded. People have come to realise that the cloud is hosted in a multitude of countries. People will demand stronger levels of encryption and will shop by jurisdiction in order to keep their communications secure.
3. Consumers to drive demand of easy to use encryption
   2015 has been the year of security breaches, and that is only going to continue into 2016. Traditionally email encryption solutions have been implemented by government bodies and financial services organisations, but we’re likely to see this trickle down into other vertical sectors like utilities and even travel. With social media logins and biometrics being used as authentication keys, we will begin to see encryption reach mass consumer adoption.
4. Biometrics to gain traction as passwords start to fade away
   The password isn’t dead yet, but it’s certainly not considered to be a secure authentication solution anymore. Throughout 2016, we’re going to see passwords play an ever diminishing role, partly driven by the increased demand for stronger encryption keys and consumer biometric authentication apps. With mobile being the main driver for secure communications in the enterprise, we will start seeing more technologies inject personal attributes into encryption key generation and authentication, such as voice recognition, retina scans or heartbeats.
5. Mobile payments become easier for both customers and criminals
   With mobile banking and mobile payments usage continuing to rise, not only are more people using their mobile devices for these services, but more and more companies are entering the market sensing the opportunity. Some of these providers don’t have strong enough security policies, as they are not subject to the same data security regulations that banks are. With usage skyrocketing, its just a matter of time before the next big data breach comes from a mobile payments provider.