By ; Peter Nabil- Basel Khaled

With cybercrime on a meteoric rise, organizations in 2019 have to pay extra attention to increased cloud security, vulnerable Internet of Things networks, and phishing practices

A recent report on cybercrime estimated that hackers could have made as much as 45 billion from their illicit activities in 2018. The staggering number is yet another wake-up call for organizations worldwide to take their cybersecurity measures seriously and pivot them around three main trends of 2019.

These are the cybersecurity trends that are must-know for any organization this year.

The rise of cloud computing as a go-to network infrastructure solution among an increasing number of businesses is barely news, but organizations using the cloud still pay insufficient attention to the safety of their data.

“As a cloud provider, we are aware of the rising number in DDoS attacks globally, as well as other attempts to breach the security of the cloud,” commented Vincentas Grinius, CEO of Heficed, a cloud, dedicated server and IP address provider. “Per usual, the more access points are available within a platform or data stored on the cloud, the higher the risk. If using third-party party solutions, enterprises need to pay extra attention to securing their data. When it comes to the cloud providers, their customers need to make sure that their provider is putting the effort in properly segmenting their servers, so that an attack on one customer wouldn’t compromise the whole platform.”

Another IT industry on a steady rise is the Internet of Things, which is forecasted to double by 2021 and reach 520 billion. Naturally, growth of this magnitude is leading to a growing number of cybersecurity incidents due to an increasing number of poorly secured IoT devices. Apparently, it is not only the devices themselves who could fall victim to malicious activities – the networks that devices are connected to are increasingly at risk, too.  

“From a network infrastructure point of view, every connected device might be a potential threat,” added Grinius. “Phones, smartwatches, even smart home appliances, among other devices, might be used as access points and compromise whole networks. If the users do not update their devices regularly and take other precautions, they could be responsible, even without knowing, for enabling potentially damaging network-wide cybersecurity threats.”

Widely discussed phishing attacks remain one of the most widespread threats to data safety in 2019. As Verizon’s report on data breach estimates, 32% of all data breaches in 2018 were connected to phishing of some sorts. What is particularly challenging about phishing is that it is not only about cybersecurity solutions from the system’s side – a large part of phishing success is due to human error.

“To successfully tackle phishing, companies will have to invest in tools that monitor employees’ email traffic more closely, in making sure the systems used are always updated, and in cybersecurity training plans that would make employees aware of the threats and how to behave when confronted by them. A training plan like this could include a phishing simulator and constantly updating the employees on new phishing methods,” finished Grinius.