The new year is almost upon us, and the IT environment for security and preventing IT threats shows no signs of settling down. In fact, the rate of threat spread and vulnerability frequency has instead been increasing at an exponential rate globally. What started with simple viruses propagating themselves and trojans piggy-backing on files has evolved into complicated and extremely well-crafted phishing, buffer overloading, SQL-busting, and taking advantage of remote-access tool resources.

Half of the latest IT security trends are a result of common behavior. As more and more companies and organizations move to the cloud for scalable tool provisioning and data storage, that has opened up a new avenue for attacks, particularly when third party cloud providers are involved. Security is only as good as the quality of each component and the attention of each user. Here are some of the big trends manifesting for the new year as a result:

Begging for Automation 

Big cloud storage has allowed the collection of big data, thousands of channels of input and output, and a Mt. Everest of activity to keep track of. That in turn has increased the vulnerability side because the workload is simply too much for even the best security teams to monitor related activity. So automated security tools are quickly becoming the most popular if they can cut through all the chaff quickly for targeted, specific threat identification. Old-style security tools are falling down in this arena and new generation tools with automation configuration and scenario security policy building are becoming the go-to defense for large repository systems and high traffic networks.

Less Providers on the Market Playing Field

The end-user IT security field is imploding in on itself with consolidation and mergers. And that means less choice and offering for consumers and companies looking for related products. While protection is still very much available, the choices of tool variation will be less and the costs are likely to go up as fewer players control more of the market.

Nobody Told the Cloud Hackers to Take a Break

Charging forward on overtime status, hackers and attack parties are taking full advantage of the complexity of cloud setups and common mistakes being made in infrastructure configuration. By using weaknesses in code or improper connection point setups, attackers have easily pried open access to major financial institution databases in the cloud as well as storage repositories. Because so much of the cloud depends on different parties to do their job right with outsourcing functions, anyone missing a key detail opens a backdoor a hacker can take advantage of. Victims have included big players like Capital One, Amazon, and similar.

The Cost of Required Security is Going Up

Various state and federal level laws are being passed and go into effect in 2020 requiring companies dealing with consumer data to implement far more stringent security protection. In addition, companies are also under new burdens to explain their use of personal data as well. Both will drive the need for additional security tool outlays.

Middle Player Attacks are Increasing

Instead of direct attacks, an increasing number of security threats are coming through support vendors whose systems are compromised first. Because they have authorized linkage to bigger clients in their operations, downstream victims who are the real targets are hit because they aren’t expecting an attack from an authorized external support channel. This has been a common route for annoying ransomware attacks on end-game targets through their infrastructure or Internet provider.

To stay ahead of the game, you need a security pro who stays versed in all of the security complexities with business phone systems, carrier services and cloud solutions. ATSI Business Communications can keep you far more secure in this day and age. Remember, smart prevention is far cheaper and affordable than damage control after the fact. Don’t be the next statistic.