The cyber security industry changes constantly, especially as hacking and malware threats become stronger and more dangerous. With the year winding down, let’s look ahead at some cyber security trends we expect to see in 2019.
5 Cyber Security Trends We Expect to See in 2019
1. DDoS Damage Control
Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are coordinated assaults that involve targeting a website or network with an overwhelming amount of traffic, causing it to slow down drastically or shut down completely.
This type of attack has been growing more common over the last few years, and it’s remarkably hard to prevent since it often occurs without warning. That means companies will have to put in place some solutions not to prevent DDoS attacks, but mitigate their impact:
- Behavior monitoring, which detects abnormal network traffic
- Intrusion prevention systems, which responded to anomalies that the behavior monitoring system finds
- A redundant network with multiple servers, so if one is attacked, the others can handle the extra traffic
2. IoT Challenges
Internet-connected smart devices (known as the Internet of things, or IoT for short) are remarkably convenient, but they also serve as an avenue for cyberattacks.
Securing the IoT has proven to be one of the biggest challenges in the cyber security industry, simply because there are so many devices, many of which are easily overlooked. This challenge will only become more difficult in 2019.
3. Less Ransomware
Finally, we can say with confidence that one of the top cyber security trends for 2019 will be less of a focus on ransomware. This type of cyberattack, which wreaked havoc on businesses and individuals in 2016 and 2017, has shown a marked decrease in 2018, according to a recent report.
Understand that this doesn’t mean ransomware has vanished. It’s still a danger, and it’s still important to recognize its warning signs.
4. Cryptojacking Malware
Unfortunately, the decrease in ransomware attacks has been attributed to the rise of a new type of attack that hackers are conducting: cryptojacking.
This attack involves the use of malware programs to hijack a computer’s resources and use them to mine cryptocurrency.
For the sake of brevity, we’ll say that cryptocurrency mining essentially allows people to gain a small amount of cryptocurrency each time a transaction using it is made. You can learn more about the technical details of the process in this article from Webopedia.
5. Migration from End-of-Life Software
Software that has reached “end-of-life” is software that is no longer supported or updated by its manufacturer. Since the majority of updates issued by software manufacturers contain security patches, it’s extremely dangerous to use end-of-life software.
Windows 7, which was used on approximately 41 percent of desktops in 2018, will reach end-of-life on January 14, 2020. Companies that rely on this highly common operating system must move to a new one, like Windows 10, or face increased security risks.
These cyber security trends are just five of many we expect to see in 2019.
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