Emerging Cybersecurity Technologies in 2017
Computer security as we know it is undergoing a revolution. The myriad of legacy systems are being replaced by storage and transmission systems that are more complex, mobile, wireless, and even hardware independent. The war between data defenders and data thieves has been described as a game of cat and mouse. As soon as the white hats counter one form of malicious black hat behavior, another malevolent form rears its ugly head. How can you tip the playing field in favor of InfoSec warriors? The answer lies in these emerging technologies this year.
hardware authentication
The shortcomings of usernames and passwords are well known. Clearly, a more secure form of authentication is needed. One method is to bake authentication into a user’s hardware. Intel is moving in that direction with the Authenticate solution in its new 6th generation Core vPro processor. You can combine a variety of hardware-enhanced factors at the same time to validate a user’s identity. Hardware authentication can be particularly important for the Internet of Things (IoT), where a network wants to make sure that the thing trying to access it is something that should have access to it.
User behavior analysis
Once someone’s username and password are compromised, whoever has them can break into a network and engage in all sorts of malicious behavior. That behavior can raise a red flag for system defenders if they are employing user behavior analytics (UBA). The technology uses big data analytics to identify anomalous user behavior. Comparing a user’s current behavior to past behavior is not the only way UBA can identify a malicious actor. Compare how someone behaves compared to people with the same manager or the same department. That can be an indicator that the person is doing something they shouldn’t be doing or that someone else has taken over their account. Additionally, UBA can be a valuable tool for training employees in security best practices.
Early Warning Systems
Early warning systems are still in their infancy, but they are being created to curb piracy in innovative ways. These systems are based on algorithms that try to identify sites and servers that will be hacked in the future. This vision does not focus exclusively on the weaknesses of the infrastructure; rather, it includes an analysis of the common traits shared by the most frequently hacked systems. For example, a site known to contain a large amount of sensitive financial data would be a more likely hacking target than a site that only contains generic business information. Such systems are not designed to protect all sites, or even sites with specific types of security, which is a departure from classic cybersecurity approaches.
Virtual Dispersive Networks (VDNs)
There has been a rise in man-in-the-middle cyberattacks, through which hackers alter or insert messages into communication streams. Virtual Dispersive Network, or VDN, mimics a traditional approach used by the military. Radio frequencies are changed randomly and communications are divided into parts (or streams). The receiving radios are programmed to reassemble these parts in their original form. With VDN, the Internet itself or a particular network becomes the assembly platform for communication.
Combinations of encryption and intrusion detection technologies with Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
The biggest problem with cloud-based applications, particularly when it comes to BYOD, is that these technologies reside and transmit outside the parameters of traditional firewalls and security systems. To address this issue, some companies are using SAML (a data authentication and authorization format) with encryption and intrusion detection software to manage their data flow.