I-Sight, April 23, 2020–11 Cybersecurity Threats for 2020 (Plus 5 Solutions)

Password Attacks

According to the 2018 Varonis Global Data Risk Report, 65 per cent of companies use over 500 passwords that never expire.

“These accounts have a higher risk of showing up in online password dumps with valid passwords. Privileged and service accounts with non-expiring passwords are a cyber criminal’s best friend,” says Steve Tcherchian, CISSP and Chief Information Security Officer for XYPRO.

While “ensuring these passwords are stored properly, changed regularly, meet complexity and compliance requirements and are audited can be overwhelming to implement and manage,” companies can’t afford the potentially devastating data breaches poor passwords could cause.

To mitigate risk, Tcherchian suggests using two-factor authentication. This simple change makes it much harder for cybercriminals to breach your systems. Employees might be hesitant to use it at first, but “until we shift our mindset and sacrifice a little bit of convenience for a massive amount of security, attacks on privileged credentials will continue and increase in 2020.”

Cybersecurity Solutions in 2020

1. Machine Learning for Prevention

Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are being used to streamline processes in nearly every industry these days. These technologies increase efficiency and reduce the risk of human error. For cybersecurity, ML and AI can help keep you ahead of ever-evolving schemes and scams.

“The amount of data being generated is increasing exponentially,” says Tcherchian. “And the only way to keep up and identify threats is to allow machines to churn through data and trust they will detect the right concerns—then take appropriate action to combat the threat.”

In 2020, Tcherchian explains, ML and AI will be the focus of cybersecurity research and innovation. Teams will use these technologies in tandem with human analysts to spot patterns and anomalies, boosting detection and prevention efforts.

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