Over the past 5 years, we have seen the rise of cyber attacks. Cybersecurity became crucial for not only businesses but Governments, Education Institutions, and common citizens. The urgent need to find proper cybersecurity solutions has revolutionized the sector, transforming it into a thriving industry, expected to reach the $1 trillion mark by 2021.
Cybersecurity threats are very real, given the fact that most companies nowadays, old and new, have e presence online. They use databases to store all kinds of data: from user’s IDs to accountancy numbers, and any other sort of highly sensitive information, crucial for the functioning of the company. That is why it is a good idea to find a reliable cyber security company that can prevent unauthorized access to this precious data.
Luckily at this point, and after a horrific 2017, firms have started to take cybersecurity seriously, and have found in new technologies some answers. As a result, these growing concerns about cybersecurity have brought us more security solutions for both computers and smartphone (and you can click here to learn more about how you can keep specifically your smartphone secure). Software, firewalls and antivirus systems have been benefited by recent developments in Artificial Intelligence, adaptive authentication, blockchain technology and the Internet of things, to name few, in this never-ending cat-and-mouse cybersecurity race. Thus all eyes are now fixed on Intelligent Security, Blockchain and IoT tools.
What trends do we expect to see more in 2019 in terms of cybersecurity? And are they truly ready for the challenge?
Intelligent security software
The rise of “intelligent security” will certainly happen. This term has been around for the past few years, but now we’re finally seeing it come to fruition in specific tools. This term includes a whole array of different technologies, from AI to the Cloud, although working in parallel to become a whole security system itself. It can be defined as a protective shield capable of learning and adapting through data to external threats.
Intelligent security combines aspects of machine learning and artificial intelligence with traditional security applications. The tools are more capable of adapting to new threats and to secure new types of applications. Basically, this system is based on AI algorithms that are able to learn from security breaches to avoid them in the future. Consequently, the more attacks a system is hit with, the more reliable the security will be to defend itself in the future.
Among the solutions brought by Intelligent security, we can find threat intelligence software, or cloud security software as its most representatives. As it was recently mentioned by G2 Crowd security site, “Threat intelligence networks and applications provide companies with the latest information on new cyber threats such as zero-day attacks, new forms of malware and recently discovered exploits.” This software uses machine learning capabilities, so it is able to spot newly found malware within the system and deal with it.
Cloud security software, on the other hand, is developed to avoid massive data breach in large data sets stored in the cloud. Business have started to rely in the cloud as a more effective way of storing data. As such, SaaS solutions have become a real hit among businesses. However, the potential vulnerabilities have soared along. To avoid data breaches, firms have started to insert endpoint cloud application gateways and cloud-based network security tools to protect sensitive business information. These products can be used to protect end-users, the data those end-users may be transferring over unsecured networks and the public cloud itself.
Blockchain as a safe network
Blockchain is another emerging technology that will be used as a cybersecurity tool more in 2019, although it is not its first functionality. However, blockchain itself can be seen as a cybersecurity measure as this distributed ledger allows secure transactions and the identities of the parties involved are anonymous. Everything is validated through a public ledger, so all peers in the network have to accept any change made within the blockchain. Nonetheless, information remains private through a highly complex encryption process.
Security powered by blockchain can be applied to identity management software, transactional systems, healthcare data management and any other industry you can think of. By using the security of blockchain, companies could realistically save tons of time and money by streamlining transactions and securing them with blockchain. Everything is quite exciting when talking about blockchain, although we still need to think that we are in the early days of its development and changes and improvements are still needed before going mainstream.
IoT security tools
Internet of Things, or IoT, is a controversial technology, to say the less. Its capability of connecting literally everything (even a fridge) around a person allows it for levels of connection never seen before, but on the other hand, it also increases the possibility of more devices being subjected to get hacked. That means a lot of more endpoints to secure and a new threats to identify.
IoT security tools have emerged to help prevent these unsuspecting endpoints from divulging sensitive information or becoming part of a bigger attack. A good thing is that since IoT is still evolving and concerns about its security have arisen at an early stage, new solutions are also being tested taking in consideration those concerns.
As explained by Specialist Aaron Montemayor, “Many of these [IoT] solutions will come as a form of hardware to monitor IoT sensors, but many are cloud-based applications to monitor threats on multiple devices at once. The threats are enormous and not completely understood since its so new. Hackers could gain control over a car’s operating system or a hospital’s infrastructure and wreak havoc on everyday citizens.”
Conclusion
We all still bear in mind the 2017 attack to the NHS, in the UK, that compromised millions of patient’s records; or the recent security breach in Germany, committed by a 20-year-old student who got access to thousands of high-profiles data, including the one from the Chancellor, Angela Merkel.
The digitalised society in which we all live, has taken shape through the evolution of digital platforms that were not so concerned initially, with securing the information of its users. As such, millions of data (mostly from users) is now roaming across the web, with little, or in the best of the cases, outdated security, to stop hackers. Most importantly, this data is filled up with real people’s important digital information: telephone numbers, e-mail conversations, pictures, names and addresses… which have become crucial for their everyday operations, and one of the most important assets to trade with for large firms.
The cybersecurity solutions mentioned above aren’t the traditional ones. New complex threats require bigger and thorough solutions. It is not about building an impenetrable shield against hackers, but just making their job harder, so we all fee safer.
Dinis Guarda is the founder of intelligenthq.com and an author, serial entrepreneur and CEO of ztudium that manages openbusinesscouncil.org, fashionabc.org, blocksdna.com, lifesdna.com.
He creates and helps build ventures focused on global growth, 360 digital strategies, sustainable innovation, Blockchain, Fintech, AI and new emerging business models such as ICOs / tokenomics.
Dinis is the founder/CEO of ztudium that manages blocksdna / lifesdna. These products and platforms offer multiple AI P2P, fintech, blockchain, search engine and PaaS solutions in consumer wellness healthcare and life style with a global team of experts and universities.
He is the founder of coinsdna a new swiss regulated, Swiss based, institutional grade token and cryptocurrencies blockchain exchange. He is founder of DragonBloc a blockchain, AI, Fintech fund and co-founder of Freedomee project.
Dinis has created various companies namely Ztudium, a tech, digital and AI blockchain startup that builds cutting edge software, big data insights, publishes intelligenthq.com, hedgethink.com, fashionabc.org, openbusinesscouncil.org and tradersdna.com, citiesabc.com among others.
Dinis is the author of various books. His upcoming books “4IR AI Blockchain Fintech IoT Reinventing a Nation“, “How Businesses and Governments can Prosper with Fintech, Blockchain and AI?”, also the bigger case study and book (400 pages) “Blockchain, AI and Crypto Economics – The Next Tsunami?” last the “Tokenomics and ICOs – How to be good at the new digital world of finance / Crypto” will be launched in 2018.
Some of the companies Dinis created or has been involved have reached over 1 USD billions in valuation. Dinis has advised and was responsible for some top financial organisations, 100 cryptocurrencies worldwide and Fortune 500 companies.
Dinis is involved as a strategist, board member and advisor with the payments, lifestyle, blockchain reward community app Glance technologies, for whom he built the blockchain messaging / payment / loyalty software Blockimpact, the seminal Hyperloop Transportations project, Kora, and blockchain cybersecurity Privus.
He is listed in various global fintech, blockchain, AI, social media industry top lists as an influencer in position top 10/20 within 100 rankings: such as Top People In Blockchain | Cointelegraph https://top.cointelegraph.com/ and https://cryptoweekly.co/100/ .
He has been a lecturer at Copenhagen Business School, Groupe INSEEC/Monaco University and other leading world universities.
He is a shareholder of the fintech social money transfer app Moneymailme and math edutech gamification children’s app Gozoa.
Between 2014 and 2015 he was involved in creating a fabbanking.com a digital bank between Asia and Africa as Chief Commercial Officer and Marketing Officer responsible for all legal, tech and business development. Between 2009 and 2010 he was the founder of one of the world first fintech, social trading platforms tradingfloor.com for Saxo Bank. In 2011 he created the B2B platforms socialmediacouncil.org and openbusinesscouncil.org with Jamie Burke.