The Future of Digital Security
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In a pre-digital era, you needed the key to get into a house or a car (or one would wind up smashing a window).
As technology evolved, the methods for breaking in became more sophisticated--it requires quite a skillset to hack into a car and shut it down in operation, but it has been done.
Fortunately, the security has advanced as technology does.
Looking ahead, we offer a few predictions about what to expect from digital security in the coming years.
Physical Security will Get Intense
As more businesses move to the ease of cloud storage and computing, data centers across the globe have grown. Physical security at data centers is already top notch: human and digital guarding, backup power to the backup power--a virtual Fort Knox.
Even still, companies are advancing physical security, and are already (or soon will):
- Build in remote locations, such as the arctic circle or deserts
- Verify identity with biometrics, not just access cards and fingerprints
- Strictly limit human access, instead utilizing modular equipment which can be relocated for repairs, rather than onsite
- Utilize emerging technologies for data to simultaneously exist in multiple storage facilities (decentralizing risk)
Data warehouse security could currently be described as excessive, but it will likely get even more intense in the coming years.
Cloud Security will Advance
Beyond the need for security of the data centers themselves, the information passing along digital communication channels in the cloud will continue to advance.
The cloud already offers bank-level security. In fact, more than once a “hack” of a cloud-based computing solution, has been a hoax or a flop. Just last year, some telephone scammers claimed they had hacked into Apple’s iCloud (spoiler: they hadn’t). Also last year, in a sophisticated scam reportedly backed by Iranian hackers, an employee at accounting firm Deloitte may have unintentionally given access to Microsoft’s Azure cloud-hosting service. Ultimately, the malware failed to make it onto the company network.
Yet even such fraudulent or failed hacks of the cloud, inspire security officials with new defense tactics.
Cloud computing is still safer and more secure than the days of onsite data storage and firewalls.
Consumer Education will Need to Improve
With cybercrime costing the global economy an estimated $450 billion in a single year (2016 figure), federal agencies and private firms are looking to secure the most likely weak link at any business: the email account of a hapless employee.
That’s because phishing scams are so remarkably prevalent and successful.
Three-quarters of US businesses experienced phishing attacks last year. While avoiding such schemes sounds simple (don’t click on the link or attachment!) the sophistication of such attacks has advanced. Gone are the telltale signs of poor grammar and strange requests--those methods exist, but so do exact duplicates of seemingly genuine requests.
The future of digital security will require everyone who uses the internet to be educated about:
- Secure passwords
- Two-factor authentication
- Spotting and reporting phishing scams
- Spotting and reporting fake social media accounts
- Updating software immediately when such become available
With enough of 1-5 above, scammers won’t stand a chance.
Hacking for Goodwill Expand
Like most of the world’s major tech companies, Oracle + NetSuite participates in hacking-for-good activities, such as Hack(athon 4Good). Through such events, paid “bug bounties” (rewards for finding computer code flaws) encourage programmer-types the world over to help find security weaknesses before they become a problem.
SCS Cloud is Ready for the Future
At SCS Cloud we live on the cutting-edge of digital technology, partnering with our clients for long-term success.
With NetSuite, you have the world’s first fully-cloud-based computing solution, ready and scalable for the future.