Researchers say catastrophic data breach is inevitable by 2021

According to researchers at the Raytheon and the Ponemon Institute, a staggering 80% of IT and cybersecurity experts believe we may be headed for a data breach of “catastrophic” proportions in the next few years.

The combination of more and more devices connected to the internet, together with the increasing risk of cyberattacks, as well as the growing sophistication of the attacks we’re seeing, is allowing cyber-hackers the perfect platform to do some real damage.

On top of this, with organisations still not taking their cybersecurity responsibilities seriously enough, unless things change, we could be headed for disaster very soon.

To match the trend of the growing “internet of things” and the increasing cyberattacks we’re facing, organisations should be investing more time and resources into cybersecurity.

But we know this isn’t happening.

The number of high-profile data protection breaches caused by cyberattacks recently has been almost overwhelming. For some, it’s hard to keep track of just where your data may have been breached or leaked nowadays, and with so much data out there and it all being accessible and connected in the world wide web, it’s hard to know for sure where our data is, who can control it, and where it could end up.

How can we ever truly know our data is ever safe?

The majority of experts feel we will see an increase in ransomware attacks between now and 2021, with the majority also believing we will see an increase in attacks initiated by nations as well. Just this month we have seen our own government and the Russian government publicly threaten to use forms of cyberwarfare, which is a scenario that’s practically unprecedented to most of us. We’re left wondering whether we’re headed into some kind of cyber war in the near future, and how such a thing will affect the citizens of the nations at “war”.

Experts suggested that the biggest cybersecurity risk for the coming years is the growing number of devices now connected to the internet. I expected to see televisions and consoles being hooked up as they are now, but we also have smart-appliances where we can control boilers, fridge-freezers using our mobile phones.

I must admit, I never envisaged being able to control my boiler using a phone when I was amazed by the gaming features on a Nokia 3210 in my younger years. It’s great for convenience, but the concerns over security is a worrying issue.

Mobile apps and the rise of AI are also said to be another growing concern when it comes to the future of cybersecurity as well.

The trend continues to see the risks increasing while defence is never a priority.

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