Internet-based security issues continue to expand where complicatedness related to how to track the machines hacking the information and insufficient tools to protect the data persists. 

Without proper policies and mechanisms to identify the machines (or machine life cycle), without new enterprise-scale tools, working remains perilous in the current internet-based environment.

In 2018, IT professionals remained worried over data breaches, cyber attacks, ransomware and distributed denials of service attacks. In addition, financial theft and loss of intellectual property are key issues related to such attacks.

Recently, the theft of 1.5 million patients' records was reported by the SingHealth hospital group. The report on hacking found the hackers targeted internet connectivity to Citrix and the Sunrise Clinical Manager (SCM) software.

Earlier, vulnerabilities related to it were reported, but the remedial actions were inadequate and mismanaged, and the vulnerabilities existed, leading to hacking.  

2018 was dominated by a number of IT hack news and increasing cyber threats. The top challenges were hardware vulnerabilities, file-less malware, crypto mining, the vulnerability of internet-connected devices and issues related to integration with emerging technologies- AI and machine learning systems. As a result, IT firms are requesting clients to adopt resilience and be proactive. 

The growing scope of AI can help companies to identify risks to improve integrity and reduce such threats. Security engineering may get mainstream this year, and the cloud may become automated. A better approach for monitoring data may be discovered using innovative and competitive technologies.

How are Companies Preparing for 2019?

Identity theft remains the biggest problem of online firms where companies are experiencing several new hacks in the year, forcing them to invest in improved data security.

Another leading challenge for IT professionals working in this sector is the growing digitalisation, where several websites are moving to the cloud and other digital devices, IoT, mobile, blockchains, AI and machine learning, but the risk assessment and client-based tests of such systems have not been conducted. 

A report in July found the companies were confident about their cybersecurity efforts, and about 75 per cent said their protection was above average. Still, at the same time, more than 50 per cent suffered data breaches.

Thirty-six per cent of the companies claimed they were doing regular security assessments, but it was observed that many such organisations were ignorant about the inefficiencies of their systems. 

Some firms are unaware of where the data is stored, whereas some top executives are unaware of the company's data storage techniques and maintenance practices.

If proper steps are not taken -social media accounts, chatbots, fake news, and other cyber attacks will continue to pose difficulties in such organisations. 

With the increase in connected devices, data breaches can happen unknowingly due to poor work practices where the employees may fail to wipe devices before passing them along.

Bio-behavioural authentication and other regulations regarding security, usability, customer, and enterprise identity, can resolve problems related to passwords, usernames, and form filling hacks. 

For more information, contact Mont Digital at www.montdigital.com or email info (@) Montdigital.com.