As predictions and trends go, spotting the changing face of cybercrime isn’t exactly the obvious thing to be thinking about, but one Channel Islands tech firm has been doing just that.
Logicalis reckon the Internet of Things (IoT), data protection, Artificial Intelligence (AI), encryption, and security awareness are some of the biggest trends set to affect cyber security in 2018.
The IT security firm has been developing its capacity to deal with the growth in cyber crime, including the launch of the Logicalis Cyber Academy, training graduates and apprentices, and the Logicalis Security Operations Centre (SOC), monitoring systems for clients across Europe.
Ricky Magalhaes, Head of Offshore Security at Logicalis, said: “Every year, security gets more challenging as cyber criminals find new ways of getting around defences. The optimal security solutions involve a blend of traditional methods, such as good maintenance, monitoring, and management, coupled with cutting edge detection.”
“Cyber security is one of the fastest moving areas of IT and nothing is foolproof. It’s always worth asking yourself what the worst case scenario could be and working back from that, closing loop holes and ensuring everything that could be removed from your system is backed up safely elsewhere.”
Research by Europol show cyber crime has grown and evolved, on an ‘unprecedented scale’ over the past year. Europol’s 2017 Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) highlights ransomware as the most prominent threat – it saw a 750% increase during 2016.
Phishing attacks rose 65% from 2015 to 2016 according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, and with 60% of hacks relying on compromised credentials and social engineering, (2017 IOCTA report) security awareness becomes even more important to help stop attacks.
According to the IOCTA report, over two billion records belonging to EU citizens were breached over the past year, mainly due to poor digital hygiene and practices. Figures from Accenture LLP show cybercrime cost large global companies on average $11.7 million this year, a 23% rise on the past 12 months.
Ricky said: “The new EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) coming into effect in May 2018 mean organisations have to take data security much more seriously, auditing the data they store, defining how they process it, and tightening up all areas of IT security to prevent data being breached, damaged, or leaked.”
“Out of all the issues affecting cyber security next year, data protection has the biggest impact as it has implications for everyone, across virtually all areas of an organisation.”
Logicalis is one of the Channel Islands’ largest providers of managed IT services and security solutions, offering clients a comprehensive service managing, maintaining, and monitoring IT systems, data, and security. You can read their full trends report here.
