What You Need To Know About Cybersecurity In 2020

In 2020, we expect to witness another record-breaking year for cyber-attacks.  As many organizations have learned, it is no longer a matter of whether you will face a cyberattack, it is simply a matter of when. New technologies make people and companies more efficient and effective, cybercriminals included. Cybercriminals adopt new technologies at a fast pace.

Cybercrime is a business with flourishing markets offering a range of tools and services for the criminally inclined. Attackers can hack indiscriminately or target specific assets, preying on both large and small organizations in the public and private sectors.

As cyber-attacks coming from these organized rings become more complex and effective — and as data becomes an increasingly important resource for businesses — cyber security has risen to the top of executives’ concerns.

From products like exploit kits and custom malware to services like botnet rentals and ransomware distribution, the diversity and volume of cybercrime offerings has never been greater. The result of this has been a simultaneous broadening and deepening of the cybercrime threat and increased ransomware demands.

Cyber Attacks Are Evolving

“Cybercriminals are continuing to evolve their attacks with more sophisticated tactics, and companies of all sizes are in their crosshairs,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder, The Ponemon Institute. “The 2019 Global State of Cybersecurity in SMBs” report demonstrates cyberattacks are a global phenomenon- and so is the lack of awareness and preparedness by businesses globally. Every organization, no matter where they are, no matter their size, must make cybersecurity a top priority.”

The Ponemon report findings include:

• Overall, attacks are increasing dramatically – 76% of U.S. companies were attacked within the last 12 months, up from 55% in 2016. Globally, 66% of respondents reported attacks in the same timeframe.
• Attacks that rely on deception are rising – Overall, attacks are becoming more sophisticated, with phishing (57%), compromised or stolen devices (33%) and credential theft (30%) among the most common attacks waged against SMBs globally.
• Data loss among the most common impact – Globally, 63% of businesses reported an incident involving the loss of sensitive information about customers and employees in the past year. That number is 69% in the U.S.– an increase from 50% in 2016.

To combat these threats, security must be given an increasingly louder voice in business. Organizations are starting to perceive the real impact of cybersecurity on business, with the results of the study showing that fears of the cost of an incident are forcing business leaders to give cybersecurity a larger portion of the IT budget and more attention in the boardroom than in previous years.

Protect Your Business

The impact of a cyber breach or attack can be huge: there is the time you could lose through having to fix your website or systems, the potential loss of customers, damage to your reputation and all the other potential consequences of a hacker getting their hands on your data or disrupting your infrastructure. The good news is protecting your business from hackers and viruses needn’t be a daunting challenge.

• A well-informed and involved CEO and board of directors strengthens a company’s security posture. Board of Directors and Executive Management need to understand and approach cybersecurity as an organization-wide risk management issue, not just an IT issue.
• Implement a security strategy which is aligned with the organization’s mission, strategy, goals and objectives.
• Educate your employees about online threats and how to protect your business’ data, including safe use of social networking sites.
• Compliance with privacy and security regulations is believed to improve the cybersecurity posture of organizations. The benefits of a strong cybersecurity posture include an increase in consumer trust and the ability to innovate and take risks that can lead to greater profitability.
• Develop a strong Security governance approach based on risk management which will result in an overall reduction of number, impact and time to remediate security incidents.
• You may be required by law to protect data you hold and process about your customers, suppliers and staff. Find out more about the NIST recommendations to get simple, practical advice on how to keep your customers, suppliers and employees’ personal information secure.

Security Predictions

Some of the major cyber-attacks and security concerns will live on and have a major impact in 2020:

• Increase in Cyber Crime: Most organizations are simply not structured to defend against such attacks, which will succeed in penetrating defenses. The cost of a data breach has risen 12% over the past 5 years and now costs $3.92 million on average, according to IBM. These rising expenses are representative of the multiyear financial impact of breaches, increased regulation and the complex process of resolving criminal attacks.
• GDPR: GDPR will continue to have a significant impact in 2020. The trend that started with the GDPR and accelerated with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is set to spread to other state laws that prescribe security standards as part of privacy laws and regulations.
• Cloud Misconfigurations: Companies migrating to the cloud will engage security on their own to mitigate liability in 2020. More than 70% organizations have at least one major misconfiguration in their cloud environment which impacts security and may leave them vulnerable to more risk. The case of the AWS S3 bucket is a classic example of what a misconfigured cloud storage device could do.
• SMBs Under Attack: Small and medium-sized businesses will be a bigger target for cybercriminals in 2020. According to the Ponemon Institute reports 76% of SMBs suffered a cyber-attack in 2019, up from 55% in 2018. Meanwhile, the average cost of an attack against an SMB is now $200,000.
• IoT: Gartner predicts that nearly 20 billion IoT– connected devices will be online by 2020. The exponential increase in the number of IoT devices, along with the 5G networks roll out, will dramatically increase the number of attacks against smart devices on a large scale.
• Financial Cybercrime: Financial institutions remain the favorite target of skilled cybercriminals. This has been true for more than a decade. Cybercrime imposes a heavy cost on financial institutions as they struggle to combat fraud and outright theft.

Strategic Actions

As we move into an era of increasing connectivity, cybersecurity is a business-critical, extremely dynamic, massively scalable and highly specialized discipline. Your strategy should include a range of measures—with security software, vulnerability management and employee training topping the list of ways your organization can increase its resilience against cyberattacks in the year and years ahead.

To achieve these intended outcomes, the companies must:

• Implement next generation security monitoring tools and processes, such as real-time

analysis and behavior analytics, to rapidly detect malicious activities and understand

the potential impact of events.

• Conduct regular cyber security tests to exercise cyber defenses, detection and

assessment capabilities.

• Augment detection processes and procedures, such as expanded end-point detection

and data mining capabilities.

• Implement strong standards for security configuration and continuously monitor

for configuration changes.

• Improve processes to handle threat intelligence information and develop threat hunting

activities to detect malicious activities.

How can Techcess CyberSecurity Group help?

The Techcess CyberSecurity Group helps Small & Mid-Size Businesses establish effective security controls around sensitive assets and balances the needs to reduce cyber risk while enabling productivity, business growth, and cost-optimization objectives. Located in Houston, Texas, we strive to provide our clients with enterprise-level security services to ward off and eliminate both run-of-the-mill security issues and the most destructive security threats many businesses face. To get started protecting your business’ digital assets, call us today at 1-833-892-9237.

Reference: https://www.govtech.com/blogs/lohrmann-on-cybersecurity/the-top-20-security-predictions-for-2020.html

https://www.forcepoint.com/sites/default/files/resources/files/report-2019-cybersecurity-predictions-en.pdf