Jan/Feb 19 - ChannelVision Magazine

renewed attention as organizations bolster the capabilities of their first line of defense: their employees. Cybercriminals also will shift fo- cus to weaker countries and industry verticals that lag in their adoption of more advanced cyber defenses. More industrialized countries are invest- ing heavily in cybersecurity, making them less attractive to cybercriminals. Companies, particularly in the Middle East and Africa, often assume their security is sufficient without realizing that the threat landscape is drastically shifting. This makes them easy targets for cybercriminals that tend to follow the path of least resistance. Attackers also will continue to shift their atten- tion away from larger organizations to small and medium businesses. Monetization of data breaches There have been several highly successful high-profile data breaches during the past few years. From Equi- fax to Facebook, eBay to JPMorgan, hackers have made off with sensitive data for hundreds of millions of user accounts. Just recently, Marriott an- nounced that its Starwood database was hacked for approximately 500 mil- lion guests – one of the largest breaches in history. With global cybercrime organizations growing in maturity and sophistication, many are now acquir- ing capabilities that were once the sole reserve of nation states. We’re likely to see these cybercriminals use stolen credentials from the past few years’ data breaches to compromise the security of even the most secure organizations. Even companies with good cyber protection have little protection against the reuse of pass- words that have been collected in other breaches. The evolution of cyberattacks also has created entire ecosystems of fraud. Stolen personal health informa- tion, for example, could be used to gain insight to patients’ ailments and likely treatments. Hackers could use this information to obtain prescriptions for strictly controlled medication that is then traded or sold illegally. It’s no longer just about a straightforward cyberattack: cybercrime is fast be- coming a trickle-down economic sys- tem with multiple layers of fraud and criminality built into its very fabric. Intelligence becomes smarter Organizations will realize the im- portance of threat intelligence and will talk about the need for an intelligence function. What they really mean is that they want some insight from their vendors around the huge amounts of threat data they’re acquiring. There may be a handful of organizations Cyber Patrol Why data breaches still happen Source: Aruba survey of IT/security professionals Enterprise IoT Adoption Source: 451 Research i Q. Which of the following best describes your organizations’s adoption of Internet of Things (IoT)? In use (not including pilot projects) In discovery/proof of concept Plan to implement in next 12 months Plan to implement in next 24 months Considering, but no current plan to implement Three responses permitted 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 1% 46% 25% 15% 5% 9% It is difficult to protect complex and dynamically changing attack surfaces (mobile, byod, cloud, ioT, etc.) There is a lack of adequate staff with the necessary skills Attackers are persistent, sophisticated, well trained and well financed Human error Complexity and the inability to integrate security solutions Lack of visibility into the network Threats that have evaded traditional security defenses and are now inside the IT ecosystem Other 35% 36% 42% 43% 46% 48% 49% 1% January - February, 2019 | Channel Vision 27