14 DAY TRIAL // The Information Security Forum (ISF) has identified the top six security threats that global organizations will likely face next year. The list includes BYOD trends, reputational damage, data privacy in the cloud, cybercrime and the Internet of Things.
“As we move into 2014, attacks will continue to become more innovative and sophisticated. Unfortunately, while organizations are developing new security mechanisms, cybercriminals are cultivating new techniques to circumvent them,” noted Steve Durbin, global vice president of the ISF.
“Businesses of all sizes must prepare for the unknown so they have the flexibility to withstand unexpected, high impact security events.”
As far as the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend is concerned, experts say that the risks associated with it stem from both internal and external threats, such as poorly tested and unreliable business applications, mismanagement of the devices, and the exploitation of software vulnerabilities.
In order to protect their systems, organizations are advised to make sure their BYOD programs are well structured.
When storing sensitive information in the cloud, companies must work with their providers to establish whether the data will be transferred across borders. Depending on the country where they’re located, organizations might need to make sure they’re in compliance with the imposed regulations.
Cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated, which is why organizations must ensure that they’re prepared to deal with threats to avoid reputational and financial damage.
Corporations and governments are constantly targeted by profit-driven cybercriminals, hacktivists and even terrorists. That’s why they need to prepare for any type of scenario and implement mechanisms to increase their resilience, particularly the one of critical business components.
The Internet of Things, representing all devices connected to the Web, offers more opportunities for IT automation, predictive analytics and data gathering. Companies themselves must continue to improve security through interoperability and communication.
“You can’t avoid every serious incident, and while many businesses are good at incident management, few have a mature, structured approach for analyzing what went wrong. As a result, they are incurring unnecessary costs and accepting inappropriate risks,” continued Durbin.
“By adopting a realistic, broad-based, collaborative approach to cyber security and resilience, government departments, regulators, senior business managers and information security professionals will be better able to understand the true nature of cyber threats and respond quickly, and appropriately.”
Additional details can be found in ISF’s Threat Horizon Report.