CTO Insights: Looking Back, Moving Forward

2015 is over, but it has been a big year for security. We’ve seen some of the biggest data breaches on record, fallout from crippling hacktivism attacks, and new highs in security spending. We’ve also seen state-sponsored attacks, ransomware, and other security issues receiving more attention globally, both in newsrooms and at the government level.

In our 2016 predictions, we said that we will witness advancements in existing technologies—both for crimeware and everyday use, and that these new developments will bring new attack scenarios. According to Trend Micro CTO Raimund Genes, ransomware will continue to thrive this year, and even with good security practices, or even when victims pay the ransom, cybercriminals will still find other ways to extort more money from their victims. Unfortunately, even when users know that paying the ransom is what fuels the cybercriminal scheme, they will still pay. Additionally, we also predict the failure of a consumer grade smart device that will turn lethal, as vulnerabilities will not always be detected before something bad happens.