Nine 2019 Cybersecurity Predictions
Wondering about the state of global cybersecurity in 2019? Wonder no more with these nine cybersecurity predictions for where the new year will take us — and what it means for our digital properties, online lives and livelihoods.
1. Everybody Will Have to Choose
Their Partners and Equipment More Carefully
The Internet of Things is a remarkable benchmark in human
technological advancement. It’s in its infancy, though — and it shows.
A few years ago, big box chain Target demonstrated the
potential folly of using vendors and connected technologies that hadn’t been
fully vetted yet. In 2014, the personal records of some 40 million Target
shoppers, including names and credit card numbers, were stolen by hackers.
Their way in was through the
company’s internet-connected HVAC system.
2. Attacks Will Become More
Common in the Supply Chain
Small and large businesses alike rely on the dependable
flow of finished and unfinished goods throughout the world. When it comes to
electronic products, many vendors, partners, and assembly and handling
companies help see finished devices into the hands of their end users.
In other words, there are many spots along the journeys of
these products that practically invite tampering — including a particularly
insidious kind of cyberattack.
Although the claims have been vociferously denied by the companies involved, including Apple and Amazon, as well as by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, merely the rumor of secretly placed foreign microchips in Super Micro motherboards was enough to send technology companies into a tailspin.
They ramped up efforts to seal potential holes in their
security practices and ensure counterfeit or sabotaged parts don’t end up
opening a backdoor into their companies’ products.
3. Digital Security Will Become a
Company Budget Line Item
The whole of the internet sits on a perilous foundation.
Without uniform net neutrality and civility rules across or within nations, and
with abundant ways for cybercriminals to access personal and company data, it
was only a matter of time before companies added digital and internet security
to their budgets as a permanent line item.
It’s not a surprise that 2019 is estimated to see more than
$124 billion spent on cybersecurity — 8.7 percent
growth over the previous year. So
many companies require nearly constant access to the internet to remain
operational and solvent. A big part of this spending will go toward security
talent acquisition, which will also see the addition of
many more masters-level courses in IT
architecture and cybersecurity.
4. Small Companies Will Have More
Widespread Access to Enterprise-Level Security
For several years, conventional wisdom said small
businesses were either easy pickings, cybersecurity-wise, or off
cybercriminals’ radars, since larger corporations represented more lucrative
targets. We’ve been half right. In 2016, more than 60
percent of attacks targeted small businesses. Small
businesses might be easy pickings, but they’re definitely not off anybody’s
radar.
2019 will probably see a kind of democratization of
cybersecurity. It’s likely that the cost of hiring outside security consulting
and applying enterprise-level security to a company will fall far enough that
corporations and small businesses alike will end up using many
of the same security tools in 2019 and beyond.
5. DDoS Attacks Will Become More
Common
In the third quarter of 2018, DDoS attacks increased in
frequency by 71 percent over
the previous quarter. This bodes ill for 2019.
Whether undertaken by a foreign actor or a group of
domestic hacktivists, it’s likely that Dyn and other companies that oversee our
internet infrastructure will continue to see attempts to cripple the internet.
When Amazon Web Services goes down, so do many of the
web’s most popular websites. When Dyn was attacked
in 2016, it took down not just Amazon, but also Twitter, Netflix,
CNN and a host of other digital properties that millions rely on daily. This is
a precariously balanced and questionably concentrated amount of power.
6. Biometrics Will Roll Out to
Many More Devices
Although some forms of biometric technology can be fallible
under the right circumstances, they’re a generally more robust form of security
than many others, including passwords.
2019 will continue to see the proliferation of fingerprint
scanners, iris scanners and authentication cameras built into personal and
commercial workstations, tablets, notebooks and smartphones.
Thanks to this convenience, 2019 and beyond will see us
inch toward a major benchmark in mobile contactless payments made via
smartphone: 2023 could see as much as $1.67 trillion
change hands in this way.
7. The IoT Will Expand and Create
New Avenues of Attack
Hackers tend to look for the path of least resistance when
it comes to getting access to sensitive records and data. According to
Kaspersky Lab, more than 120,000 individual pieces of malware were deployed
against IoT devices in just the first
half of 2018.
This is three times the number of similar attacks in the
entire previous year. The best advice is to purchase IoT devices that have been on
the market long enough to see multiple hardware and software
iterations. The same goes for vendors: look for established IT and SaaS
companies with real-world security credibility.
8. Cyberattacks Become the New
Cold War
The U.S. received a sort of digital comeuppance in 2016.
After decades of interfering with other countries’ elections, the 2016
presidential election famously featured the online
manipulation of voter sentiments, at both
extremes of American politics, by foreign actors — and potentially by some
domestic ones, too.
American hegemony has long been taken for granted, but
we’ve been caught flat-footed by novel types of digital attacks. This cyber
warfare will likely become the heir apparent to overt warfare — and the next
likely step in cold wars between major powers.
Many power stations in the U.S. appear vulnerable
to attacks from foreign actors, and recent world
history — like the 2015
events in Ukraine — reveal just how easy it is to
demoralize a population by switching off their power a few days before a
national holiday.
9. Cryptocurrency Will Either
Come of Age or Crumble
2019 is widely expected to be the year the Securities and
Exchange Commission gets serious about regulating cryptocurrency companies.
Some voices within the crypto community expect the SEC to keep approving
initial coin offerings (ICOs) as well as crypto exchanges so long as the parties
involved can demonstrate some
minimum level of security-mindedness.
Some will see the regulation of cryptocurrencies as an
assault on what makes this type of currency unique and timely. Others will
welcome partnership with governing bodies in keeping the major players honest.
One way or another, cybersecurity will remain a top-of-mind concern for each of us, well into 2019 and beyond.
About the author
Kayla Matthews is a technology and cybersecurity writer, and the owner of ProductivityBytes.com. To learn more about Kayla and her re
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(Security Affairs – 2019 Cybersecurity predictions, cyberattacks)
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