We are leaving behind a year that, statistically, was higher than average in cyberattacks and data breaches. As we near the end of 2019, we can look toward a new year that can bring many expectations in the continuing cybersecurity war. When it comes to cybersecurity, taking a proactive approach when identifying threats rather than being reactive is crucial. In an ever-evolving threat environment, creating a security position based on last year’s threats isn’t enough anymore. Organizations need to stay one step ahead as much as possible.

Many questions arise for cybersecurity experts this 2020, but one thing is certain: there will be many unexpected events that few can be prepared for. What innovative and growing technologies will be at the vanguard of cybersecurity? Which attack vectors are most likely to be misused? And what will enterprises do to prevent threats and vulnerabilities? As companies start thinking about their main 2020 cybersecurity endeavors, they must follow a proactive approach. Bearing that in mind, we’ve put together our top 10 cybersecurity predictions for 2020, to help organizations and individuals make sure they stay ahead of threats.

Top 10 Cybersecurity Predictions for 2020

Attacks via Supply Chain Will Be Very Popular

When you think about insider threats from within organizations, first thing that comes to mind is mischievous contractors, negligent workers or conniving social engineers. But cyber felons looking for the simplest way to accomplish their objectives can target victims through a third-party vendor. Supply chain attacks are already a thing and have caused notorious data breaches in the past. Third-party vendors are one kind of insider threat that are easily ignored. These third parties have access to vital systems and applications, making them an attractive target for cyber-attackers. Audit your supply chain and document the data and systems they have access to. Ensure that you have security controls in place to address threats and vulnerabilities.

ThreatModeler will help organizations to understand the security threats that third-party applications bring and prioritize security controls to address them. Threat modeling enables businesses to visualize and map out their attack surface to better understand security challenges. ThreatModeler’s automate functionality brings speed and cost savings to cybersecurity efforts. In addition, ThreatModeler’s ability to save threat models and build upon them as existing templates makes scalability more attainable.

Companies Will Increase Their Cybersecurity Budgets Significantly

Corporations will substantially boost their budget on cybersecurity spends. The most important question is: Will they be spending their financial plan on the proper cybersecurity approach? Ultimately, they won’t, and we can anticipate a comeback in data breaches in 2020 regardless of the track record amount of money spent on international cyber protection. The issue lies in the failure of numerous organizations to implement simple cybersecurity policies. Also, many businesses remain that will use outdated security technology to battle the future’s cybersecurity struggles. So even though companies persist on increasing their budgets, we can expect data breaches to take place frequently.

The Importance of Finding Threats Will Become More Evident

When hackers infiltrate IT infrastructure and threats are distributed, finding data security answers becomes a real challenge. This is probably the most alarming stage of attacks. Organizations will be progressively less understanding of this inactivity phase. The interval in which cyberattacks have the most damaging effect on victims is from the minute the malicious load is unleashed, until exposure by security solutions. Companies and security experts have started to recognize this and are expected to see it as a major challenge to address in 2020.

Ransomware Will Be Bringing Destructive Consequences

Ransomware is getting more sophisticated and it is evasive of even the most innovative email security solutions. Ransomware attacks can infiltrate even the most advanced security solutions with enhanced complexity and mechanization, particularly when it comes to the formation of Trojan alterations. Also, with existing security solutions, hours may pass before ransomware distribution is detected, which is frequently more than enough time for damage to be done.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) Is Expected to Be a Top Threat Vector

We should anticipate that BEC will grow to be even more lucrative for cybercriminals than ransomware. Examples of BEC include invoice scams and spear phishing. Traditionally BEC has been about getting customers to inadvertently install malware to grant bad actors entry to networks to collect data. Hackers will trick victims into approving payments, or providing private, sensitive information, e.g. client data. Employee awareness training programs will embolden employees to behave carefully and responsibly. Teach personnel how to identify spoof emails, such as suspicious requests for access, out-of-character emails from management and grammatical errors.

DevSecOps Becomes Prominent in SDLC

There is a gradual shift in organizations to integrate security with development and operations. Also known as DevSecOps, security is shifted left and becomes an integral part of the planning and design stages. “Within software development, shifting security left and integrating DevSecOps with automation is the next big trend,” said Archie Agarwal, CEO of ThreatModeler, in the Forbes article 13 Tech Experts Predict the Next Big Trend In Software Development. “Software developers can’t afford to overlook security. Nor should they wait until the later stages of the software development life cycle to “tack on” security. Automation in threat modeling, for example, enables companies to detect, prioritize and mitigate attack vector threats in the design phase.”

Data Privacy Regulations

It looks like more regulations will come this 2020. The United States is looking to ratify and establish its own federal privacy laws, but we are not the only ones. Middle Eastern countries are now ready to update their privacy regulations.  Even though some privacy laws were disrupted at the end of the year, companies and congresspeople equally are urging to establish a solo, unified federal law regulating privacy and security.

Securing the Cloud Becomes More and More Important

Security in the cloud will remain a key initiative for companies in the upcoming year. Organizations pursuing to preserve their competitive edge will be fast-tracking their digital renovation policies to “cloud only” over the next few years. This year, most organizations registered cloud services as one of their top three technology investment main concerns. As businesses migrate to the cloud, we expect that bad actors will concentrate more on other issues like Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) and web application attack approaches.

Phishing Attacks Remain a Main Concern

Security experts are constantly looking for answers to unravel the increasing risk of phishing attacks. These days, most companies trying to improve their email security are motivated by the need to block phishing attacks. Phishing attacks are becoming more complicated and even the most devoted professionals can’t identify all of them. The outcomes of a phishing attack have become more serious. There is an actual demand for technologies that can uncover and block these kinds of attacks, particularly when sent through email.

Automation of Cyber Threats

Traditionally automation has been used carefully in responding to cyber security due to the large number of misleading facts informed by older technologies and the possibility of preventing actual users from doing their jobs. Due to the escalated speed of cyberattacks automation will have to be entrusted and employed to prevent threats before harm is done. Automation permits cybersecurity teams to spend less time on vainly struggling to neutralize attacks via physical means. We should anticipate a rise in the efficiency of new learning technologies to routinely detect and intercede when unusual activities suggest a cyberattack is taking place.

ThreatModeler Enables You to Secure Your Future

ThreatModeler helps to assess threats, vulnerability and risk by organizing threat information into a dashboard that manages threat results based on priority. In addition to an executive summary, users gain a detailed report of identified threats, requirements, test cases, components, data exposure, etc. Once created, users may add ThreatModeler projects to a library, enabling architects to scale threat models across the entire organization.

ThreatModeler will enable organizations to conduct a holistic risk analysis and shift security left. Its intelligent Threat Engine provides you with the ability to threat model successfully with Web, mobile, IOT-embedded applications, AWS and Azure. We encourage you to request a free evaluation of the award winning ThreatModeler platform. You may also contact us to speak with an application threat modeling expert today.