Spending on protecting data from breaches is woefully inadequate according to a new report by Juniper Research, as they predict that over 33 billion records will be stolen by cyber criminals in 2023, an increase of 175% over the 12 billion records expected to be stolen this year alone. That brings the expected total over the next 5 years to a whopping 146 billion, say Juniper.

The report covered cybersecurity trends over 9 countries including the UK, China, Russia and US, where the US will become a more prominent target over the next 5 years. The report states the main reason for the US being such a hot target for cyber crime is because the country hold national and international consumer and corporate data in a disparate range of institutions and regulations; making it easier to find and exploit systemic weaknesses.

Small Firms At Greater Risk

Spend by small businesses in 2018 will only make up 13% of the overall cybersecurity market in 2018, despite over 99% of all companies being small businesses. In addition, the cost of breaches can exceed millions of dollars, dwarfing the turnover of such businesses, says Juniper.

Many of these companies use consumer-grade products, spending on average under $500 per year on cybersecurity. With many such businesses digitising, this will leave them vulnerable to newer forms of malware which require more advanced cybersecurity, beyond simple endpoint protection.

More Advanced Security Needed

Deception technologies, which provide spoof information for malware to execute on and do no damage, while also triggering an alert to cybersecurity teams, is becoming more popular. The methods available to cyber criminals have increased beyond malware and ransomware as older techniques no longer prove as profitable as they once were, according to Juniper. Some cyber criminals are

switching to “cryptojacking”, a method of creating botnets out of corporate infrastructure to mine cryptocurrencies.

While Bitcoin was once the reimbursement of choice for cybercriminals as ransomware, the factors below are driving cyber criminals to alternative currencies (altcoins), most particularly

Etherium.

To combat these newer threats, cybersecurity countermeasures need to evolve to take advantage of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

“Juniper’s strategic analysis of 48 leading cybersecurity companies shows that AI and predictive analytics are now table stakes for this market”, Juniper Research author, James Moar, said.

“These technologies need to be made available to all businesses, regardless of size”.

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