Top 3 cyber security budget trends for 2019
As 2019 approaches, it’s a great time to look ahead at your information security plan and see what is being prioritized in your budget. 2018 saw an increased interest in investing in external security audits and improved endpoint protection. Here are a few cyber security trends to adopt in 2019 that will keep your organization’s information as safe as possible.
1) Machine Learning will be expected
Until recently, machine learning and artificial intelligence were elite parts of cyber security solutions. In the near future however, this technology will be expected as part of all security packages. In 2019, expect to see machine learning applied more frequently to firewall or threat related areas that haven’t traditionally used AI. As this technology becomes more widespread, each information security company will have to differentiate their particular offerings from competitors. Customers will have to be technologically literate enough to understand the unique selling propositions of companies that seem to have similar tools.
2) Increased focus on Insider Threats
Currently, organizations allocate about 90% of their information security budgets on perimeter spending. It’s a logical way to think: let’s use our money to keep hackers out. However, 60% of cyber attacks are carried out by insiders. Whether that be accidental or malicious, the insider threat should be a huge concern. Expect 2019 budgets to be restructured to provide more protection from internal threats.
3. User and Behavior Analytics meet Human Resources
As employee monitoring software improves and becomes more common, we’re seeing a trend to refer to it as User and Behavior Analytics, a softer and more technological term. This shift represents a growing trend of UBA being used to help human resources teams, instead of exclusively to monitor network safety.
HR teams are starting to invest in the potential of UBA to help monitor people’s emotional and psychological states, not just their network activity. If an employee engages in behavior that’s not in his or her normal range of activity, an organization can step in and check on that individual to see if there is a larger issue going on. Perhaps there’s a health issue that the employee is grappling with, or they just received a poor performance review. The stress could be affecting his or her productivity, or could be tempting them to do something drastic to “get back” at the company. UBA can help an HR professional step in and mediate the situation or help the employee better utilize the corporate benefits package. This intervention can help improve employee morale, reduce employee turnover and prevent damages.
In 2019, we can expect to see UBA budgets increase as more uses are found for the technology.
Cyber attacks and insider threats are growing in number and complexity. To combat these threats, investments in User and Behavior Analytics and Insider Threat protection are important cyber security trends to adopt when you’re allocating your 2019 cyber security budget.
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