Focus: Securing for the future

2016 saw the rapid increase in the use of ransomware and a resurgence of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks using hijacked devices making up the internet of things (IoT) against a background of new and newly-reported breaches of personal information involving an ever-increasing number of online user accounts for a range of online services. In 2017, these trends are expected to continue as ransomware and IoT botnet malware evolve to become even more sophisticated, but there is also an increase in professional, advanced attacks – including attacks on cloud infrastructure – and the rise of data manipulation attacks, further underlining the need for a fresh approach to data security. Cyber security education and training is more important than ever to enable organisations to truly understand the risks and vulnerabilities, and then look for the most effect way to manage and mitigate them, which may include new security technologies such as behavioural analytics and artificial intelligence to tip the balance in favour of the cyber defenders.