“As an organisation if you allow this to happen, you can be hit with fines and litigation and I think we’re going to see more of that kind of thing happening. If someone comes into an organisation and says that they happen to have the database of the organisation they’ve just left, that should flash up red lights. This person is likely to do the same to their new employer when they move on,” he says.
Vulnerabilities
Symantec’s security strategist Sian John predicts that the ‘Internet of Things’ will become the ‘Internet of Vulnerabilities’ in 2014. With millions of devices connected to the Internet — and in many cases running an embedded operating system — in 2014, they will become a magnet for hackers.
“Security researchers have already demonstrated attacks against smart televisions, medical equipment and security cameras. Already we’ve seen baby monitors attacked and traffic shut down on a major tunnel in Israel, reportedly due to hackers accessing computer systems via a security camera system,” she says.
“The companies building gadgets that connect to the Internet don’t even realise they have an oncoming security problem. These systems are not only vulnerable to an attack – they also lack notification methods for consumers and businesses when vulnerabilities are discovered. Even worse, they don’t have a friendly end-user method to patch these new vulnerabilities. Given this, we are going to see new threats in ways in which we’ve never seen before.”
Loosening purses
As the global economy shows signs of moving towards recovery, Bob Plumridge of Hitachi Data Systems suggests that austerity style budgets may start to ease but if they do then technology refreshes will become “laser focused on business outcomes.”
“Although budgets are expected to increase slightly, business value-driven use cases will continue to take priority as IT managers focus less on infrastructure and more on the application and business benefits of technology implementation,” he says.
“With a sustained focus on, and pressure to, reduce costs, IT managers will need to ensure investments deliver clear benefits and demonstrate best value for the services they provide. Focus will be placed on strategic approaches to sustainable cost containment which will be the differentiator between the good and the great organisations.”
New thinking
Dermot Hayden of Sophos has identified a number of threats and trends that he believes will shape the conversation around enterprise security in 2014. He says these threats, amongst them malware in the cloud, advanced persistent threats and mobile malware, will give rise to new ways of thinking about existing security technologies.
“One of the key areas that malware agents will focus on in 2014 is the cloud. Whether it involves private or corporate data, we’re expecting new and innovative threats to form throughout the year to match the increasing amount of data that’s being stored in the cloud,” he said.
“The second threat we expect to see is a growth in the appearance of advanced persistent threats. These kinds of focused attacks don’t spread malware far and wide but instead focus on specific companies or sectors and we see the line between these and the more traditional malware of the past blurring this year,” he said.
The last of Hayden’s threats takes in the ubiquitous growth in popularity of mobile technology, specifically the Android operating system.
“I think we’re going to see a lot more android malware because that’s a trend we started to see at the end of 2013 and there’s no reason to think it will stop. Mobile Android malware will probably become more complex but if it’s done properly, the Android OS can be just as secure as any other mobile OS.”
Meanwhile, Hayden also expects to see a number of interesting trends emerge this year, chief amongst them an increase in consolidation and integration of security systems across companies.
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