This year has seen numerous security occurrences and big headlines at organisations extending from the US Office of Personnel Management to the Ashley Madison site. Now, as we head into the new year, Unisys Corporation foresees that security experts around the globe will have to adopt a new outlook in 2016, embracing innovative methods, for example, micro-segmentation to counter progressively complex assaults by digital criminals.

The whole approach to security must change

“Corporate and government leaders understand that as their enterprises have grown beyond their four walls and threats have moved from concept to reality, their whole approach to security must change now,” said Tom Patterson, Vice President Of Global Security, Unisys. “In 2016, corporate leaders will take the actions needed to protect themselves in this new reality.”

Hence, Patterson is predicting the ascent of another security approach that grasps micro-segmentation, which permits organisations to effortlessly cost-efficiently separate their physical networks into thousands of coherent smaller-scale networks, or microsegments.

This approach recognises that hackers will eventually invade an association, but limits the harm they can do once they’re in. These limitations could make all the difference between a more routine cyber episode and a disaster.

Predictions for 2016

Rogue intelligence officers will use government-owned spy capabilities for their own purposes

A significant portion of the state-supported assaults that have been ascribed to governments around the globe are really carried out by state workers spurred by their own particular ideological issues without government authorisation.

In 2016, Unisys predicts that rogue intelligence officers will emerge as a different threat category, which business and government associations should screen and control differently than they would for state-sponsored attack.

Cyberattacks meet the physical world – with potentially fatal results

Up to this point, “the blue screen of death” was the worst thing that could take over your machine during a cyber attack. Now, assailants can control machines, which means they can crash your vehicle, stop somebody’s heart, cut off your city, or wreck infrastructure.

With a hefty portion of these devices based on old open frameworks, the incorporation of cutting edge security is critical to our lives and business. Unisys predicts that enterprises will see the real world results of this in 2016 as digital and physical worlds collide.

Expect a massive ramp-up in the arms race around quantum encryption

As quantum computers come on the scene, cyber criminals who are today limited by the incapability of modern computers to calculate a long encryption key, will be able to break down encryption in seconds. Organisations will need to look into and increase the use of advanced encryption approaches to impede criminals.

In 2016, Unisys predicts a noteworthy growth in big business spending and R&D interests in creating quantum encryption as a way to neutralise the advent of quantum computers.

Shifting the advantage back to the good guys

“Although many threats loom in 2016, security professionals also have an arsenal of new countermeasures like micro-segmentation,” Patterson said. “This will be the year we start changing the playing field and shifting the advantage back to the good guys.”

Edited from press release by Cecilia Rehn.