The New Year is predicted by many industry experts to be the “year of action” with regard to technology. Recent trends have morphed into commonly used strategies, including cloud computing, mobile, and data security, and 2016 is predicted to be the first year of “true transformation.”
“2016 will be a challenging year for IT as mobile and cloud force CIOs to adopt a more agile model of information security, policy design, technology evaluation, and lifecycle management,” said Ojas Rege, vice president of strategy at MobileIron. “This new approach overturns 30 years of legacy process and mindset but it can no longer be avoided.”
In addition to data security’s role in this year of change, it’s also important to remember any business that fails to regard data security as a priority runs serious risk of accidental data exposure and hacker issues. Results from such negligence include corporate “secrets” theft, malware and virus system infection, civil action, loss of data, corruption of data, loss of clients, and much more.
So how will data security change in 2016, exactly? Check out a few predictions:
OS Vs. Hackers
Stagefright, KeyRaider, XcodeGhost, and YiSpecter were just some of the mobile malware let loose in 2015, and this year will see hackers continuing to think of ways to appear trustworthy. Apple is set to lead the charge against hacking through continual diligence over use of private APIs. The company will also continue to stop untrustworthy app distribution.
Internet of Things Emergence
While the Internet of Things will likely continue as an “experiment” in 2016, its smartwatch subset will come into its own this year. It’s predicted to start “achieving its potential” in 2016 as the first generation of simplistic, low-value extension apps to be “replaced by a second generation that truly takes advantage of the new form factor and interaction methods,” according to Rege. He predicts IoT innovation will require developers to completely rethink their company's business practices rather than “porting” existing apps to new platforms.
Cloud Data Backup
Backing up cloud data will likely take precedence in 2016, as it’s necessary to back up such data just like any other valuable information. This means encrypting data before uploading it to Cloud, and consulting with security specialists before purchasing Cloud solutions or putting backup and encryption policies in place. Creating policies regarding who can access the Cloud and when is recommended, as is ensuring it can never be accessed from a public computer. Instead, it must be accessed only from company-approved devices featuring the latest security software and patches.
End-User Identity Issue
There are currently numerous approaches to the end-user identity issue, a problem that’s not going away anytime soon. Google and Microsoft are the two main participants with regard to this issue, and both companies firmly believe identity is the “foundation” for providing services to the user community. Microsoft looks at identity as a main control point for the cloud, and arguably drew a “battle” line with Google over the issue in 2015.
