Across the world, almost every single country in the modern world has experienced data security threats and cyber-attacks on their systems. Be it in government institutions or within corporate industries, billions of dollars, time and energy have been spent in fixing damaged and infected systems, while an equal amount of resources is spent as reactive measures in setting up data security solutions.
Among these losses, international money transfers, bank attacks, information and data theft are not only lost to cyber hackers but also challenging to fix. In 2018, the global cybersecurity market was valued at $118.78 billion; it is expected to rise at $267.73 billion by 2024. The popularity and spread of Internet over things (IoT), bring your own devices (BYOD), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning that has transformed lives this decade will only get more sophisticated, widespread and susceptible to attacks.
Today, machine learning offers advantages to specific areas of cybersecurity and as such, is able to handle millions of security incidents in a given day. This can provide clarity around the activity of any particular system and flag unusual occurrences for human review. A report, according to Cybersecurity Market – Growth, Trends, and Forecast [2019-2024], reveals that the global cybersecurity market is likely to be valued around $500 billion by 2030.
Cybercrimes around the world, today, is not just about advanced weaponry, but the rising number of human and digital targets. Although the adoption of Internet over things connections and products are demanding robust cybersecurity in enterprises, much needs to be done to protect underlying data security. By 2025, the global growth of Internet over things technologies could be more than $6 trillion, according to a report from Intel. As the costs of devices reduce — that is instrumental in driving the adoption of IoT, and connected devices such as vehicles, wearables, consumer electronics, machines and the like — the demand for security will rise.
Simultaneously, around the world, smart city projects and initiatives are developing, and there may likely be more than 30 global smart cities, with more than 50% located in Europe and North America alone. These smart cities will need the highest cybersecurity for prevention of attacks.
Data security and global media: the threat on global media, especially official, national and newswires is monumental today. A breach in any of the large media houses could be a breach of a country’s sovereignty and could cause intense political conflicts or disputes between nations. Besides, massive losses in financial markets could also lead to significant disruptions in the world. For instance, if the financial markets section of a global newswire were to be hacked with false news about the shares of a particular company declining globally, a worldwide catastrophe could take place with a loss of billions of dollars.
The dangers facing data is on the rise, and given its immense growth, in tandem with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, that will rely on high-speed technology and Internet is imminent. This is why data security solutions must actively contribute to addressing cybersecurity threats at the primary level across various stages.
Digital rights management (DRM) for example, can provide around-the-clock protection of data stored in PDF files and documents and protect them against cyber threats. Databases stored in various companies are prime targets for hackers. Relying on encryption and digital rights management to negate such risks to protect data from unauthorized access and use can be useful in hackers causing significant harm. As a safe protection method, digital rights management relies on advanced intelligence technologies to ward off cyberattacks by putting complete control in the hand of the creator of the data. Data can be prevented from being stolen, counterfeited, printed, copied or destroyed by protecting it with DRM.
Almost every company today is coming to terms with the fact that a data security incident is not going to be a factor of “if”, but “when”. And in this regard, many are struggling to translate it into the right data security architecture and mindset. The Cyber Trend Escape 2020 Report from FireEye states that more than 51% of organizations are not sure if they are ready or will be able to respond well to a data security attack or breach.
Given the increasingly evolving landscape where data is at risk, antique and rudimentary security solutions could force many victimized enterprises out of business.
An organization’s data security strategy must include a variety of protective measures. These include data security software, vulnerability management, employee training and digital rights management that can increase the resilience of any organization against data security attacks in the months and years ahead.