AI and Cloud movers reading new security footnotes

INDIA: The rise of voice-activated AI to access Web, data and apps will open up creative new attack vectors and data privacy concerns. Organizations migrating their already vulnerable environments to the cloud will find limited security benefits without proper preparation as the underlying foundation that runs virtual machines may be increasingly come under attack.

Global cybersecurity leader Forcepoint has released its 2017 Cybersecurity Predictions Report that examines the increasing convergence of the technological and the physical worlds and the long term implications of this new digital ecosystem on organizations and institutions worldwide. These predictions that Cybersecurity experts from Forcepoint and Raytheon collaborated to develop also include a new corporate-incentivized insider threat that may clash with customer data, corporate profit and other performance goals, forcing businesses to re-evaluate their corporate environments and growth strategies.

“The security challenges rising from the rapid integration of the digital and physical in 2017 will be felt globally,” said Kris Lamb, vice president of Forcepoint threat protection R&D and security labs. “As these spheres become increasingly reliant on one another, their influence on not only cybersecurity but in boardrooms, across borders and in the halls of government will only expand.”

“Organizations think they get inherent security just by migrating to the cloud,” said Raytheon Foreground Security Chief Strategy Officer, Josh Douglas. “But moving data off-site doesn’t absolve organizations of their responsibility to secure it and best practices still matter. The end result of a rush to cloud computing without these considerations may mean a decreased security posture for many companies in 2017.”

Turns out that 2017 will be the final full year before the European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a legal requirement. GDPR demands may drive business costs higher as new data protection controls are applied and multiple stakeholders grapple with the who, when and how of data accessibility requirements, the report indicates.