Cyber security in 2021

The cybersecurity statistics disclose a massive expand in hacked and breached data from sources that are progressively familiar in the place of work, like mobile and IoT devices after the spread of the pervasive virus. From the Bitcoin outburst on Twitter to New Zealand's Stock Exchange (NZX) going offline - we have observed some of the profuse insolent cyber attacks in the year gone by. On top of this, COVID-19 has build up remote personnel, making inroads for cyber attacks.

The current security analysis propose, most firms have unprotected data and poor cybersecurity operations in place, making them at risk to data loss. To victoriously oppose against spiteful intent, it's crucial that companies make cybersecurity awareness, prevention and security best practices a part of their culture.

Cyber Security Trends In 2021

The widespread has enforced enterprises to strengthen their cybersecurity efforts to safeguard their systems and networks. With more frequent companies warming up to the plan of remote work on a lasting or indefinite basis, the area is expected to expand further. The list below shows a few trends that may structure the cybersecurity landscape in 2021.

AI In Cyber Security

Artificial intelligence can help the shortstaffed and deprived security teams to stay on top of cyber threats and attacks. AI furnish dynamic threat mitigaton capacity necessary for continuous observation and modification to security vulnerabilities. According to a latest research report, the market cap of 'AI-in cyber security' is contemplate to hit $14.18 billion by 2025. Here, with the use of AI, the user gets security alerts in real-time to activate quick threat mitigation. Along with expert systems and machine learning, AI can be interactive and can be hands-on in preventing threats rather than detection.

Prevention, not reaction

The future lies in a proactive method. A proactive security method is designed to avert assaults instead of react after an attack has happened. The days of expecting an attack to be detected, then taking steps to quarantine are the gone days where they are more sophisticated attack methods. All those conventional reactive ways are now useless. Proactive approach in security, like micro-segmentation and the idea of Zero Trust architecture, lessen the attack surface to a bare minimum to prevent breaches.

Security Automation

It identifies the incoming threats and priority alerts as they emerge and also respond to them in time. Security automation points to the machine-based performance of security efforts to systematically detect, investigate, and thwart cyber threats. It may or may not need the human intervention. Like the application of automation in other fields, in security too, it frees the workforce to concentrate on more skill-based tasks. As per research, due to the absolute volume of tasks associated with cybersecurity, IT teams miss out on 74% of events/alerts that sometimes blow out of proportion. Such automation detection and lower-level problem resolution can be taken care of by the machines.

Security as a platform

Corporates require unified platform that can come up with proactive protection that traditional point solutions which are unable to convey. By joining together businesses can depart from addressing threats and weaknesses individually and instead address them systematically across networks, applications, users and devices using one unified solution. This growing preference for a single, unified platform over traditional point solutions will continue in 2021 and further more.

A number of organisations do not have resources to cope up with the growing cybersecurity tasks. Last year as many companies opted for remote work when workload had risen. These firms are looking at outsourcing information security tasks to maintain a powerful mechanism in place.

The cyber security-as-a-service (CSaaS) providers offer services such as security operations center (SOC), security information and event management (SIEM) systems.

SOC mentions the location where security monitoring, analysis, and threat response takes place. Security analysts and engineers incorporates the working team of SOC. The SIEM technology helps in collection alerts and documenting responses for future reference. CSaaS offers benefits such as cost-effectiveness, versatility and digital transformation.

Palo Alto Networks' John Kindervag developed the zero trust model. Zero Trust is a strategic security concept centered on the belief which initially joints to the principle of 'never trust, always verify'. The organizations should not automatically trust anything inside or outside its perimeters and instead must verify anything and everything trying to connect to its systems before granting access. This model help to remove data infraction by eliminating the component of trust from an organisation's network architecture. Due to the perimeter-less approach useful for offices working from different locations, zero trust model has developed and gained currency in 2020.

Extended Detection and Response defined as SaaS-based threat detection and incident response tool, collects and automatically correlates data across multiple security layers - email, endpoint, server, cloud workloads, and network. XDR integrates multiple security products into a single security operation system. XDR contribute a cognizant sight of the threats across the technology landscape and assist companies to go beyond the particular detective constrain. Therefore, the threats can be detected faster and security analysts can improve investigation and response times.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) is a security framework for permitting strong, secure and fast cloud adoption and is the convergence of networking and security that optimizes access performance, reduces operational complexity, and enhances security posture on a global scale. The transformational impact across multiple IT domains make SASE unique. It promise the users and devices have firm cloud access to data and services, from anywhere and anytime. The vital edge capabilities delivered when needed is the necessity of the hour with growing cloud adoption. It ombines networking and network security in a single cloud-delivering offering. It feeds to the needs of digital business transformation, and workplace mobility and edge computing.

Destiny disrupted for networks

Security is no more concentrated in the data center and should move to cloud as remote work is the new norm. Therefore, contemplate stalling in the growth of appliance-based security and hardware that is prone to breaking. Who remains committed to on-premises hardware and software will ultimately take a beating on topline performance.

When moved into cloud means rethinking the corporate network and adopting microservices and cloud-native applications. The security architecture should grant access only to traffic between authenticated users, devices and applications in a distributed firm.

Cyber Security Training

Due to the decentralised employed culture, companies are progressively focusing at constructing strong cybersecurity teams. Data breaches and theft increased with very high pace in the yeat 2020. When such threats become more common, their is a rise for the demand for security engineer, cybersecurity analyst, cybersecurity engineer etc. Many job portals like LinkedIn, Naukri etc indeed reported a 98% spike in cybersecurity job postings compared to the last three years.

This results in a 'demand-supply gap' as per cybersecurity experts. When corporates proceed to emphasise on cybersecurity and employees' heightened awareness, many may opt to undergo short and long time training on the same.

IoT with 5G Network: The New Era of Technology and Risks

The upcoming cyber security trend for 2021 is the IoT with 5G networks. 5G networks are envised to begin in 2020 globally, an advanced epoch of inter-connectivity will become a reality with the Internet of Things (IoT). This communication between several gadgets additionally opens them to vulnerabilities from outside, influence, assaults, or an unknown software bug. Even the world's most used browser supported via way of means of Google Chrome was observed to have serious flaws. 5G structure remains efficiently new in the industry and calls for plenty of studies to find loopholes to make the device stable from external attack. Here the processors want to be very strict in constructing sophisticated 5G hardware and software to run and control data transgression. Each step of the 5G network perhaps deliver a plethora of network attacks that we won't be conscious of.

Cybersecurity challenges of 2021

Digitising increasingly affects all factors of our lives and industries. We are seeing the speedy adoption of gadget mastering and artificial intelligence tools, in addition to an increasing dependency on software, hardware and cloud infrastructure. The complexity of digitalization approach that governments are combating exceptional battles - from "fake news" meant to persuade elections to cyber-attacks on crucial infrastructure. These encompass the latest wave of ransomware assaults on healthcare systems to the pervasive effect of a compromised company of widely-followed community control structures. Vital processes, consisting of the transport of the vaccines withinside the months to come, will also be at risk.

The obscure line among virtual and physical domains suggests that countries and corporations will best be stable if they comprise cybersecurity features, concepts and frameworks are a need for all businesses, mainly those with high-value assets. In today's battles, governments ought to adapt to combat towards attackers which might be silent, distributed, numerous and technically savvy. The public and private sectors alike are engaged in this battle - and the personal zone will need what most effective the general public sphere can bring to the fight, consisting of policy-making, market-shaping incentive models and training on a massive scale.

Privacy and data protection regulations are necessary, but can also create fragmented, and sometimes conflicting, priorities and costs for companies that can weaken defence mechanisms. Within organisations' budgetary boundaries, companies have to defend and protect against attacks while they also seek to comply with complex regulations.

Corporates operate in an ecosystem that is likely more extensive and less certain than many may recognize. Connected devices are expected to reach 27 billion by 2021 globally, driven by trends such as the rise of 5G, the internet of things and smart systems. In addition, the boom in remote work that began with the pandemic is expected to continue for many. The concentration of a few technology providers globally provides many entry points for cyber criminals throughout the digital supply chain. The ecosystem is only as strong as its weakest link. The recent attacks against FireEye and SolarWinds highlight the sensitivity of supply chain issues and dependence on providers of IT functionality and services. Organizations must consider what the breadth of this exposure really means and must take steps to assess the real extent of their entire attack surface and resilience to threats. An inclusive and cross-collaborative process involving teams across different business units is vital to make sure there is an acceptable level of visibility and understanding of digital assets.

Being a cyber criminal offers big rewards and less risk. Recently, the likelihood of detection and prosecution of a cyber criminal was estimated to be as low as 0.05% in the US. Compared to many other countries, the percentage is very low US. Even when not hiding criminal activity through techniques such as dark web tactics, they use technology to commit malicious activities on digital systems. This can be very challenging to prove certain facts. Cyber crime is a growing business mode with the intention of stealing sensitive company information or personal data, and generating profit. The increased use of experienced tools on the darknet makes bitter services more economical and handy. This may infect computers with viruses and malware to damage devices or stop them working. It is very easy for anyone, a techi or not who is willing to hire a cyber criminal. Nothing changed over the last 18 months, and 2021 will be no different. Modifying and taking cyber risks seriously by planning, preparing and educating is so important and it is a universal issue. Open communications between corporations, policymakers, and regulators are a critical key to success. Until security features become essential to technology smooth , clear, and naturally usable by people, if all else fails, spotting that you have become a victim of cybercrime quickly is important. Keep an eye on your bank statements and query any unfamiliar transactions with the bank. Rely on business leadership to pay serious attention to cybersecurity.

Corporates operate in an ecosystem that is likely more extensive and less certain than many may recognize. Connected devices are expected to reach 27 billion by 2021 globally, driven by trends such as the rise of 5G, the internet of things and smart systems. In addition, the boom in remote work that began with the pandemic is expected to continue for many. The concentration of a few technology providers globally provides many entry points for cyber criminals throughout the digital supply chain. The ecosystem is only as strong as its weakest link. The recent attacks against FireEye and SolarWinds highlight the sensitivity of supply chain issues and dependence on providers of IT functionality and services. Organizations must consider what the breadth of this exposure really means and must take steps to assess the real extent of their entire attack surface and resilience to threats. An inclusive and cross-collaborative process involving teams across different business units is vital to make sure there is an acceptable level of visibility and understanding of digital assets.

Conclusion

It's very easy to turn out to be numb to the regular headlines about hacked data and information breaches. After all, if top-level authority groups or even main cybersecurity corporations themselves are at risk of attacks, what threat do others have is another big question.

Rather than accepting it as an aspect of business technique, corporates of all sizes can take proactive steps to defend themselves. Content within the cloud and constantly updated facts, these sophisticated Zero Trust protection equipments are more extensively available than ever before, enlighting business owners to live ahead and to know more on the evolving aspects of cyber threats.