Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity trends 2019

With the cyber security industrial complex in full swing and good business for all the major players, from governments and state sponsored groups, to criminal attackers and the vendors as well as their shareholders, we wonder what horrors this dystopian hell world will spew forth next.

It was arguably 2017's devastating WannaCry and NotPetya ransomware variants that brought cyber security into mainstream focus, taking it from the idea of banking scams and into the realm of hobbling hospitals and businesses that depended on critical systems with real-world physical consequences.

Then 2018, just as GDPR came into effect, brought with it data breach after data breach, affecting millions of customers across industries, including customers of household names like Reddit, Facebook, Uber, British Airways and the Marriott hotel chain.

But it won't be just consumers that pay the price of these incidents. When GDPR was implemented in May this year, the regulation meant companies that were found to have allowed a breach due to malpractice would face hefty fines.

State-sponsored breaches or attacks continued throughout the year, and it will be intriguing to see where these 'advanced persistent threat' groups head next - perhaps further underground, according to some commentators.