If there is anything that the year 2020 and the COVID-19 did “positively” (pun intended) was to fast-track the digital transformation journey of businesses.
Whether SMEs that shifted to online business through delivery platforms, to the large multinational firms that implemented Work-From-Home arrangements for most of their employees, one thing was certain: they all needed to adapt and embrace technology for their business to survive.
But with digitalization comes cybersecurity challenges–lots of them. Businesses needed better protection against cyberthreats brought about by remote working as well as the data security implications of contact tracing apps and wearables.
Taking note of these, global cybersecurity leader Palo Alto Networks announced four major cybersecurity trends that businesses need to take a look into so they can sustain their momentum towards digital transformation next year.
Prediction 1: Miss travel? Get prepared to share more personal data
Despite the data privacy conversation issue – with wariness around the use of data by some big tech companies and general data protection regulation compliance continuing to be a challenge for companies – it is contact tracing that has really made individuals sit up and take notice of data privacy.
Rigorous contact tracing and timely access to accurate and complete data has proven to be a key factor in helping “flatten the curve” in many East Asian countries that were quick to turn to such digital tools. Aside from public sector initiatives led by health authorities, private sector efforts are also being rolled out to provide support, such as the Apple–Google Exposure Notification system that some countries have even started to utilize.
More countries are establishing travel bubbles and green lanes to revive the travel and hospitality sector. For these arrangements to be efficient and safe for all travelers, however, personal data will need to be shared across borders with the right security controls and accompanied by transparent communication about how such data will be handled and stored.
With this critical need to move data between government agencies and enterprises such as airlines, airports, and hotels, the debate around how data is stored, accessed, and used will only increase in 2021, particularly as individuals are now far more conscious of their personal data being shared.
Prediction 2: The wait for 5G is over … for those who are ready
While 5G networks were introduced in a few markets already, the availability of the iPhone 12 will see the mass adoption of 5G-enabled devices for the first time. This will encourage the acceleration of 5G network rollouts as telcos seek to deploy new services for consumers and governments tap digital opportunities for economic recovery in 2021. However, it will still be a while before we experience the reduced latency and exponential growth in speed that has been promised.
This is something that more enterprises will have to pay attention to next year. The sheer number of nodes that need to be installed makes the deployment of such networks more challenging, further increasing the potential surface area for cyberattacks. Private sector infrastructure owners cannot afford to deploy the same approaches to designing and rolling out 5G networks, less they fall victim to the same types of attacks as they did in 3G and 4G.
Prediction 3: Working from home gets smarter and safer
If 2020 has taught enterprises anything, it’s that remote working on a company-wide scale is possible. With people at the center of everything, 2021 now offers an opportunity for businesses to chart a new way forward and ask how they can deliver work to their people.
With the increased adoption of cloud tools, we could see a reduction for pricier devices with more computing power as virtualized desktops become an increasingly popular solution.
Businesses could instead provide employees with simpler, connected devices so they could safely access the programs and resources they need online, delivering the work to them directly – and in turn, protecting the company’s crown jewels.
This radical redesign of the way employees connect does away with the cybersecurity complications associated with BYOD – or, as it has become the norm, bring your own computer (BYOC) policies – while enforcing the segmentation of networks more efficiently and effectively
Security will then need to be delivered via the edge, which will see solutions such as secure access service edge (SASE) being the new cybersecurity norm, thanks to its flexibility, simplicity, and the visibility it offers.
Prediction 4: The year of getting the house back in order
While network security controls remain an important component of cloud security, an additional layer of identity and access management (IAM) governance is now needed as organizations continue to scale their cloud presence.
This year, Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 researchers observed that a single IAM misconfiguration could allow attackers to compromise an entire, massively scaled cloud environment and bypass just about every security control.
With the pandemic steering IT teams away from blue-sky thinking towards more nuts and bolts issues, 2021 will see more businesses shifting their IT focus inward to look at getting the fundamentals right and refocusing on things that are truly important, even finding ways to do the same thing for less.
Doing so will likely see existing cybersecurity teams and roles being redesigned to align with an overall emphasis on getting the house in order and building a more resilient cloud environment.
Security now needs to work at the speed of the cloud, and any organization that is slow to recognize this in 2021 will only see vulnerabilities multiply exponentially.