A10 Networks, a Secure Application Services™ company, today shared its list of cybersecurity predictions for 2018. Chief topics include the pressing need to protect personal online data, and for adaptive, deceptive, and predictive security products.

“In 2017, we witnessed technological advancements and cyber threats that had a significant impact in the realm of IT. Cloud computing saw a sharp rise, with more organizations running workloads in multi-cloud environments to increase scalability for their networks. On the darker side of things, threat actors grew bolder and leveraged encrypted traffic, DDoS and IoT to spectacularly cripple large organizations for financial gain,” said Song Tang Yih, Vice President, Asia Pacific, A10 Networks. “Looking forward, we are excited by the prospect of of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning taking center stage to power cloud technology and cyber defenses.” 

A Whole New World of Cyber Security

1. Digital Security Will Become A Basic Human Rights Issue

Today, mankind is highly dependent on digital communications. Mobile devices, laptops and the cloud have enabled instant and ubiquitous access to data for everyone. At the same time, cyberthreats continue to grow and affect enterprises and service providers. 

These threats trickle down to consumers, who are often the least equipped to deal with security issues. Phishing, fraud, identity theft and ransomware threaten consumers’ peace of mind.

Our dependence on safe communications is not unlike our need for clean air, water and food. Digital security needs to be treated as a fundamental human right. Without simple protection and assurance, people are at risk. They face significant hardships and monetary losses due to rampant security threats and issues. Before security issues take epidemic proportions, society must shift its perception and see cybersecurity as a fundamental human right. This will give businesses and consumers peace of mind.

2. Regional Tensions Spark More Attacks On Government Networks 

In the last 3-5 years, city and state governments have faced increasing volumes of cyberattacks and this is expected to reach a boiling point in 2018. The Asia Pacific region which has its share of unresolved regional tensions and territorial disputes will not be spared. Case in point – the run-up to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang has been plagued by apparent state-sponsored hackers.

As city and state governments continue to move services online, pursue digitalization projects such as Smart Cities and leverage modern architectures like the cloud, they will increasingly become a target for attackers who are drawn to the wealth of personal citizen data or who are looking to simply cause headline-grabbing disruptions. 

These attacks will have a ripple effect where they could expose citizens to more fraud and theft or exposure of personal data.

3. Telco Operators A Target For Attackers Looking To Exploit IPv6 / IoT Technologies 

IPv6 is usually seen as a key enabling technology for IoT because it allows every device to have its own address on the Internet. Prior to this transition, in the world of IPv4, Network Address Translation (NAT) is used to reduce the number of IP addresses required by an organization. This naturally helps improve security because not every IP address is exposed directly to the Internet.  

However, with the explosion of IoT and AI-assisted home devices, there will be too many IPv6 IP addresses, making it virtually impossible to scan a network for botnets and rogue devices. 

Telcos who have extensively deployed IPv6 will be more vulnerable than ever. 

4. Adaptive, Deceptive and Predictive Security Products Will Become A “Top Five Technology”

In order to trick the bad guys, new technologies will emerge that will give security researchers and security operations the ability to predict an attack that is yet to happen. Predictive analytics will go from a nice-to-have to a must have, and corporations will have to invest these technologies to stay ahead of threat actors and protect their systems.

These A10 2018 predictions were put together by the company’s research and engineering teams and aim to examine the likelihood of the technological advancements and impending issues that might affect cloud computing and global cyber security.