Source:thesslstore.com

5 Cybersecurity Trends for 2020 and How to Keep Up

In 2020, many crucial aspects of our lives will continue moving to the online sphere. For a long time, our awareness about the dangers of storing sensitive data online has been lagging behind the whirlwind development of sophisticated malware, hacking, and phishing methods.

After several large scale cybersecurity scandals, both businesses and individual users have started nurturing awareness about the importance of online safety. Staying up to date with the latest changes and upcoming trends is now a matter of survival in your respective industry – so let’s see what 2020 has in store for you.

1. Privacy regulation will continue to tighten

European Union has been a pioneer in privacy regulation efforts, creating General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). This law went into effect in early 2018, and its impact on the digital landscape has been profound.

Source:insidesmallbusiness.com.au

It changed the way businesses store and handled personal information. At the same time, it changes the conversation with the customer. Cookies and targeting are no longer a given – a customer now has to be informed about the ways their information is used and has the right to deny or revoke consent. 

Some websites managed to find a loophole by denying service to customers who reject the business’ privacy policy – and European lawmakers are already working on amendments that will clarify that these loopholes are not in accordance with GDPR.

It is reasonable to expect that in 2020, government-imposed regulations will continue to tighten. While there is no consolidated set of privacy regulations in the United States, individual states have laws that protect users’ personal information. The most important one is the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which goes into effect on January 1, 2020.

CCPA regulates the way companies must store and guard user data and empowers users to seek information about personal data they store and manage the way it is used.

How can your business stay up to date with this cybersecurity trend? It’s been a while since the first government-mandated changes went into effect, and companies have had enough time to prepare. Cybersecurity is no longer a matter of prestige – nowadays, it is an essential requirement for any business. Transparency and responsibility should thus be at the core of your cybersecurity plan in 2020.

2. You will witness the battle of learning machines

We mentioned how, for years, cybersecurity has been lagging behind cyberattacks. Once the machines took over, this gap has closed. Using machine learning to gather threat intelligence has been invaluable in developing solid cybersecurity tools and systems that now work in real-time.

But one of the problems that may arise in 2020 is a counter-attack. So far, most software-based cyberattacks have been sticking to relatively simple formulas. In 2020, hackers will employ machine learning to discover system vulnerabilities and leverage more sophisticated cyber attacks.

One way to keep up with this cybersecurity trend is to make sure your threat intelligence software is up for the incoming challenge. API tools such as website-categorization-api are amazing at several things at the same time, thanks to their laser-sharp focus on gathering and analyzing threat intelligence. Such a tool can:

  • Investigate threats using nothing but a URL or domain name Identify malware, phishing, fraud, and spyware. For example, e-commerce businesses often deal with form jacking, which means implanting malicious code into forms filled by buyers. Cybersecurity teams can use website categorization to look for indicators of compromised security, identify the source of attempted attacks and blacklist those domains. 
  • You can easily block bad content within your application, appliance or company network
  • Prevent potential damage to your brand image by monitoring references in unwanted categories.
  • Examine the content of a page to determine the context in terms of brands, topics or keywords, simultaneously providing a rich data source to buyers for reaching target audiences and to publishers for monetizing their inventory.

The power of such API engines lies in a multifaceted process that takes place in real-time. This tool retrieves the website content, analyzes it based on natural language processing, and verifies results using humans – allowing you to blend the best of both worlds.

3. Security will move to clouds

Source:blog.rackspace.com

Hosting data and apps in clouds has been increasingly popular among businesses of all sizes, mid-size, and small ones in particular. This solution’s flexibility and scalability are attractive to companies who lack expertise or resources to keep their services up to date.

However, this comes with a cost – as different companies often share clouds, hackers see clouds as a valuable target for more sophisticated attacks. In case of security breaches in poorly segmented clouds, cyberattacks can easily reach several goals at the same time, affecting dozens of businesses and their customers.

Cloud-based security solutions are the 2020’s response to this cybersecurity challenge. The cloud serves as a bridge between users and their network, constantly scanning traffic for threats and being able to stop cyberattacks before they reach either the network or the end-user. 

These clouds are an excellent solution for businesses who don’t have the expertise or resources to protect their network from increasingly sophisticated hackers and malware.

API tools like website categorization can be easily integrated into the platform to boost its security, both by individual businesses and cloud providers.

4. Cybersecurity will become a foundation stone

In the past, cybersecurity has been a mere afterthought for companies. First, there would be a website, software, or platform, and only then would the businesses add layers of protection.

In 2020, this mindset will be all but gone. Cybersecurity will be built from the ground up, integrated into every foundation stone of digital solutions.

This mindset is particularly important if you want to keep up with cybersecurity trends in 2020. You have to understand that cybersecurity is not an attachment – it is an integral part of your product. Upgrades and maintenance are no longer a periodical task – they are an ongoing process.

5. There will be a shortage of cybersecurity talent

Source:computerworld.com

While most of the cybersecurity trends in 2020 are merely challenging opportunities that enable growth, this one may develop into a serious problem.

There is a shortage of cybersecurity professionals, while the demand keeps growing. The supply and demand may level out in a few years, but 2020 won’t be that year.

Apart from guarding your security talent, another solution is relying on companies and digital tools built by the greatest minds in the cybersecurity industry.

Cybersecurity trends in 2020 will emphasize the importance of prevention threats to intelligence. Make sure you’re up for this challenge – the choice of right intelligence provider may be the single most important decision you’ll make this year.