LOOKING AHEAD ANTICIPATED TRENDS LOOKING AHEAD What would the next few years portend for cybersecurity? The combination of technological advancements and our transition into ever higher levels of connectivity means that cyber threats will become even more targeted, sophisticated and deceptive. These are six trends we foresee happening in the near future: ANTICIPATED TRENDS 2 3 4 5 6 MORE FREQUENT DATA BREACHES INCREASED THREAT TO GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS MORE DISRUPTIVE ATTACKS AGAINST THE CLOUD GREATER RISKS FOR SMART BUILDINGS AND CONNECTED SYSTEMS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD BIOMETRIC DATA MORE VALUABLE TO THREAT ACTORS As buildings and factories become ‘smarter’ – through the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and connected industrial control systems (ICS) – the risk of them being attacked to hold their owners to ransom, or exploited to spread malware or conduct DDoS attacks, also increases. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be a double-edged sword for cybersecurity – it can significantly enhance the capabilities of security systems, such as in anomaly detection and response. However, threat actors can also leverage AI to search for vulnerabilities in computer systems, and create ‘smarter’ malware. As biometric authentication becomes increasingly common, threat actors will shift to target and manipulate biometric data, to build virtual identities and gain access to personal information. 0 1 010 0 010 010 010 10 0 010 0 010 0 010 0 0 0 01 0 01 0 0 01 0 0 0 0 01 0 01 0 0 01 0 01 0 0 0 01 0 0 0 01 0 01 0 01 0 0 0 010 0 0 010 0 0 010 010 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 01 0 11 1 01 1 0 1 0 1 01 1 0 0 01 1 0 1 0 01 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 Data has become the most valued ‘commodity’ in cyberspace, which means cybercriminals will try even harder to breach computer databases – especially those that store large amounts of private and personal information. 46 Threat actors will focus on disrupting supply chains which have become highly interconnected and automated. Industries dominated by a few companies are especially vulnerable, as problems in one stage of production may potentially lead to a breakdown in the entire supply chain. With more databases hosted in the cloud, threat actors will be on the lookout for potential vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructure. While their primary goal remains data theft, threat actors will also try to exploit cloud services for other malicious aims, such as to amplify Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. 47