2017 to be tipping point for cybersecurity

Next year will be a tipping point for cybersecurity as threats continue to evolve to become more intelligent, autonomous and difficult to detect, according to Fortinet.

The security vendor has made six predictions about the expected threat landscape in 2017 and the anticipated methods savvy cybercriminals will employ in the near future.

First, the emerging machine learning trend will make its impact on the threat landscape, Fortinet has predicted. The company expects to see the emergence of malware designed to employ adaptive learning to improve the efficacy of attacks.

As the IoT market expands, if manufacturers fail to secure their IoT devices, consumers could start to hesitate to buy them out of security fears. This would have a potentially devastating impact on the digital economy.

In the same vein, Fortinet expects to see more attacks on cloud infrastructure leveraging the 20 billion connected IoT devices, which are increasingly the weakest links in the cloud security chain.

Meanwhile, the company expects attackers to increasingly target smart city infrastructure such as building automation and management systems, which brings major potential for civil disruption.

Fortinet has also predicted the emergence of very focused ransomware attacks on high-profile targets including celebrities, politicians and major companies, as well as automated attacks introducing economies of scale to ransomware by allowing criminals to extort small amounts of money from large pools of victims.

Finally, the current shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals will come to a head in 2017, Fortinet has predicted, with technology having to step in to close the skills gap.

“The expanding attack surface enabled by technology innovations such as cloud computing and IoT devices, a global shortage of cybersecurity talent and regulatory pressures continue to be significant drivers of cyberthreats,” Fortinet Global Security Strategist Derek Manky said.

“The pace of these changes is unprecedented, resulting in a critical tipping point as the impact of cyber attacks are felt well beyond their intended victims in personal, political and business consequences.”

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