Cybersecurity Predictions for 2020

Just like previous years, 2020 was not a good year forcybersecurity news.  As we look to thenew decade in 2020, here are some predictions for what we will see in thecybersecurity space.

Ransomware will continueto be a key problem

Cyber-criminals havecontinued to focus their attentions on healthcare, education, and governmentorganizations as they found much success in 2019. Over 1,000 schools across theUS fell victim to ransomware and hospitals faced disruption of services and hadto divert patients to other facilities after shutting down computer networks.Hundreds of managed IT clients found their systems inaccessible after theirproviders were compromised to distribute ransomware to the client networks.

And now severalransomware groups have started to exfiltrate data in order to force victims topay ransoms. Many organizations had started to ensure that they had good backupsystems in place and avoided paying ransoms, choosing to restore their systemsfrom backup. But with this new twist to ransomware, companies now face therelease of information and a data breach.

Ransomware operatorsare also setting up websites to publicly shame victims who do not want to pay theransom, meaning that some companies that chose to restore systems will nolonger have the option of keeping a ransomware attack out of public knowledge.

Data Breaches will stayin the headlines

It only took a few weeks for a data breach to hit theheadlines in 2019 and 2020 will probably be no different. Payment system malwarehas become a favored method of stealing credit card information as we have seenhigh-profile Magecart malware infections and also a rash of POS malwareinfections affecting restaurant and gas station chains.

We can expect to see more data breaches hit the headlines resultingin acceptance that data breaches are just a way of life which we discussed inour post: “It’s a Trap: Data Breach Fatigue”.

IoT Security will be stillbe a major concern

As consumers gearedup for Black Friday, the FBI issued a warning about the security of SmartTVsand how they could be compromised to spy on owners. Then there were the cases Nestand Ring being hacked to harass and terrorize families. With the wide publicizationof the FBI’s warning and the Ring camera system hacks, consumers are becomingmore aware that the smart devices in their homes can be turned against them tospy on them and they need to take steps to make sure they protect theirprivacy.

The California IoTlaw also goes into effect on January 1^st and that will be somethingthat both consumers and manufacturers will want to keep an eye on for itsaffects and implications for companies.