Peer to Peer Magazine

22 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | SUMMER 2016 BEST PRACTICES Cybersecurity's Uncertain Future: More Threats Call for New Defense Strategies Cybersecurity's Uncertain Future: More Threats Call for New Defense Strategies In the past, organizations relied on antivirus technologies to block hackers from entering their networks, but since aackers have become adept at geing around blockades, the future of cybersecurity will revolve around detecting aackers quickly aer they've entered a network. Bring your own device (BYOD) and the cloud have already brought new vulnerabilities into the work environment; with the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), there will be many more. In fact, Gartner Inc. forecasted in a late 2015 article that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016 — up 30 percent from 2015 — and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. Baked-In Security With the Internet of Things (IoT), new devices that contain soware can be hacked. When affected devices connect to the corporate network, it too could be hacked. For years, there has been talk about security being "baked into" devices to secure them. Some government agencies have goen involved. The FDA recommends medical device makers to bake security into products. However, there is no federal agency tasked with ensuring recommended guidelines are followed. If federal agencies mandate the security of devices, that could cause other issues. Apple, which baked security into its phones, said it fought an order in February from the FBI compelling the company to unlock an iPhone that belonged to one of the aackers in the San Bernardino shooting that killed 14 people. Apple said geing around the passcode protection on its phones would create a backdoor that could be used in the future by hackers. Whether or not the government gets involved in security mandates, individuals and organizations must take measures to protect themselves. Changes in Security While devices and goods must have protections, passwords will fall to the wayside. People can't remember passwords, and hackers have numerous ways to discover them and log into networks remotely. Biometrics like fingerprint scanners, eye scans and facial recognition soware will replace passwords, The future of cybersecurity isn't pretty. If you think security has been difficult recently, you won't want to think about how hard it will be in the future. Defeating attackers has become so difficult that computer users will have to reconsider what makes for successful security. by Jeff Multz

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