Page 8 - Cyber Warnings

Escaping the Gravitational Pull of Data Insecurity

By Cliff Beek, President of Cloud Constellation Corporation

Passengers. Gravity. The Martian. These and many other films depict space as a hostile,
frightening environment that threatens our safety and must be overcome. Sounds a lot like
today’s hyper-connected network landscape. However, things are not always as they appear,
and new technology may make space the safest place for data – ever.

To get a fuller picture of how this might be possible and why it may be necessary, we need to
look at the current state of data to understand some of the primary forces undermining its safe
storage and transport.

Data Security is Disappearing

In a global forecast analysis, Gartner predicted that the overall information security market
would grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.1 percent through 2020.

Yet, despite the increases in spending, the data breaches keep coming. The switch from
perimeter to endpoint network security has not happened quickly enough, and it alone is
insufficient to meet today’s advanced threats.

As we try to adjust to the new normal of billions of interconnected devices, the IoT continues to
pose serious challenges. The Federal Trade Commission’s recent suit against a router
manufacturer speaks to the severity of the threats that can be caused by insecure internet-
connected devices. Last year’s massive Mirai botnet attack, which took most of the U.S. offline
for a day, is a case in point.
As if these attacks weren’t disruptive enough, well-funded and determined hackers continue to
find new ways to infiltrate the network. In its yearly Data Breach Industry Forecast, Experian
predicted several trends that would take center stage in 2017. One of them will be international
data breaches that will cause significant problems for multinational companies, particularly in
light of preparation for the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to
take effect (see below). The firm also predicts that healthcare organizations will be the most
targeted sector this year, with sophisticated new attacks emerging.
A particularly worrisome trend is that of government-sponsored cyber attacks, which Experian
predicts will escalate from espionage to proactive cyber war. The Office of Personnel
Management breach was a mere foretaste of things to come as nations ramp up their activities.
Experts anticipate internet-based attacks to take down critical infrastructure this year, as well. It
is also likely that, at least partly due to this activity, that government surveillance of data will
increase.

8 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine February 2017 Edition
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