Predicting The Major Cybersecurity Storylines For The Next Year

The browser community has been attempting to mandate SSL as a minimum standard for years—slowly implementing changes and benefits to help motivate site owners and businesses to encrypt.

2017 will be the year they stop asking nicely and start marking non-encrypted sites as “not secure.” This should cause a fairly rapid, industry-wide reaction that quickly ensures all sites encrypt to avoid being singled out.

This, in turn, should help make the internet a little safer.

Unfortunately, for every few steps forward we also seem to be taking a step back. Cybercrime is becoming more sophisticated and more prevalent. Symantec’s research indicates that 90% of large companies and organizations, and 74% of small and medium-sized businesses have been targeted by a cyber-attack in the last calendar year.

Cyber threats are everywhere, and 2017 will be no different. Here, according to McAfee, are some major Cyber Security predictions for the coming year.

Ransomware Attacks Reduced in the Latter Half of 2017

Despite the fact that ransomware is currently on the rise, McAfee predicts that a number of factors – initiatives like the No More Ransom collaboration, new anti-ransomware technologies and continued law enforcement action – will reduce the volume and effectiveness of ransomware attacks by the end of 2017.

Windows Vulnerabilities Slow as Other Platforms Become More Popular

New attacks aimed at penetrating the latest operating systems have become increasingly difficult in recent years. Right now, to attack Windows 10 OS with a fully patched Microsoft Edge browser would require combining several high-quality vulnerabilities with advanced exploitation techniques. Aside from hacking competitions, this level of sophistication is rarely seen “in the wild.” This will continue in 2017 as attackers are forced to choose other vectors.

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