As the calendar rolls from 2015 into 2016, there seems to be no end in sight to ongoing concerns about the world of cybersecurity. New threats are constantly emerging and lawmakers and IT professionals struggle to keep up.
This is especially true in the financial services industry, where 2016 is sure to see changes, along with some things that remain the same. Here are some predictions from the experts in this field for the New Year:
First off, regulations in the banking industry are bound to get tougher. New York regulators, for example, are pushing for every bank to have to appoint a Chief Information Security Officer, as well as to mandate two-factor authentication. Both inside and outside of the banking industry, authentication and password resets will become more challenging to protect consumers.
Next, the battle between governments and tech companies is not going to slow down anytime soon. Governments want access to large tech companies’ databases in order to access data to catch potential terrorists, but companies are concerned that these same criminals could exploit the “back door” that the governments want access to. When it comes to banks, however, the information sharing level with the government in the US will be increasing thanks to the Cybersecurity Sharing Information Act of 2015.
Of course, criminals aren’t always far away. Sometimes, in fact, they’re found very close to home, and the insider threat is sure to grow. Companies need to be extremely careful who they give information to, as sometimes their greatest threats are found within.
As always, large banks and payment companies will remain targets for hackers because of the access to peoples’ financial and personal information. However, there are more and more ways for these criminals to get access to information as the Internet of Things continues to expand, and there’s no end in sight to identity theft and impersonation being a major issue.
Along the lines of things that never seem to change, experts believe that e-mail will remain a major weakness for big business, as well as everyday consumers when it comes to hackers accessing information.
Clearly, cybersecurity challenges are an ongoing battle, and the landscape will continue to change in 2016.