6 Tendencies Taking Shape in Enterprise Security this Year

Two years ago, the world rushed to say the antivirus industry is dead. I disagree simply because antivirus companies do not exist anymore. I haven’t seen a security company that limits its portfolio to one, traditional security (antivirus) solution. Those who’ve tried are dead and gone, but most of them have morphed into cybersecurity companies.

They’ve aligned themselves to the future, adapting to new cyber-threats and tech advancements. For instance, here, at Bitdefender, we are now creating hardware that embeds our scanning technology to fend off emerging attacks on consumer-grade IoT devices. This market is on the brink of maturity, so the need for security becomes more acute every day. For instance, Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 274.6 million wearable electronic devices will be sold worldwide in 2016, an increase of 18.4 percent from 2015.

Another area with potential for innovation is the enterprise security sector. Long regarded as data-rich gems, businesses remain preferred targets. That is why they require state-of-the-art protection. In this light, Bitdefender was recently named a Visionary in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms.

So, staying at the forefront of technology and striving to become an industry game-changer are two pre-requisites for the development of this industry. And it’s the only way to ensure its continuity. Forward thinking is what got us up to this point.

Now, let’s look into the crystal ball and see what businesses can expect to develop in 2016, in terms of enterprise security.

Machine learning to ramp up security. Advances in deep learning will help AV vendors improve their malware detection rates in 2016 with the help of real-time, predictive analysis. A new class of security solutions may emerge to pre-empt zero-day attacks that have ruined businesses in the past.

CIOs increasingly adopting open-source. Open-source continues to pick up steam. Recognizing the need to innovate business offerings and gain a competitive advantage, companies will rely on open-source for critical business operations, as well as easy access to innovation. Open-source security is also constantly refined and adapted by dedicated teams, and it's often more proactive than reactive.

IoT security standards will evolve. As more enterprises will adopt internet of things technologies, device makers and providers will be forced to define new IoT security standards that ensure both the efficiency and security promise of IoT.

The year of the single platform security solution. Businesses will be looking for convenient all-in-one solutions to manage the security of their assets. Everyone will opt for a unified management console to control physical, virtualized and mobile endpoints. This way, administrative activities are streamlined and point solutions eliminated.

Integrated security for MSSPs. Managed Security Services (MSS) is a $15 billion market and is set to expand. In response to increasingly complex assaults, MSSPs will acquire security specialists to help protect their clients, as well as manage security tasks, including deployment, policy setting and security monitoring.

Blockchain gets new identity inside the enterprise. Known as the underlying technology behind bitcoins, blockchain is now being tested as a secure, transparent way to monitor the state and integrity of a particular asset or transaction inside a company. This setup means the entire network, rather than a central authority, is responsible for ensuring the validity of each transaction. A new, unique digital fingerprint is created for each asset. Any change comes with its own fingerprint and is sent to each client node for validation. If the fingerprints don’t match, or if the change to the data doesn’t fit with the network’s rules, the transaction may not be validated.