The Illusive Networks 2021 Predictions by Ofer Israeli

As part of the #InfoSecInsightJam, we turn the microphone over Ofer Israeli, CEO & Founder of Illusive Networks, for these 2021 Predictions.

The Illusive Networks 2021 Predictions by Ofer Israeli

Continuation of ransomware. The “spray and pay” method of scattering ransomware all over the internet and hoping to hit paydirt through the numbers game has given way to highly targeted strains pointed at specific victims. Despite all the myriad solutions deployed by organizations to defend against cyber threats, ransomware is increasing at a rapid rate. The fundamental weakness underpinning the rise of ransomware as attackers’ chosen tactic in the aftermath of the remote work explosion is cybersecurity’s overreliance on behavioral-based threat detection. With the continued reliance on remote and hybrid work situations, the “old normal” isn’t likely to return. All the baselines created with years of user activity patterns factored in to detect and flag anomalies went haywire in the first few months of 2020. Without a baseline to compare anomalies with, threat detection based on activity monitoring will continue to generate even more false positives than usual, leading to more wasted investigation time.

Boundaries will continue to be pushed. For example, the recent news of the election security issue with Iran, while it’s a big deal, it didn’t shake the country. I think it didn’t really shake the country because we saw similar things in 2016. The essence here is just human psychology – the boundaries keep getting pushed. And then the next time something occurs that seems unheard of, a country is going to accept it, and then when it occurs again, it’s not that it’s overlooked, but that it doesn’t seem all that awful.

I think we’re going to see the stakes dramatically continue to grow. There is a lot that nation-state attackers can do, but they’re not doing today. And somebody at some point is going to make that first move. I think we’re going to see a shift in what is perceived as acceptable or reasonable.

Security-savvy board members. From a company governance perspective, I do think we’re going to start to see a trend of more security and technology savvy board members being added to the board of directors. It will be crucial, as security continues to be a huge risk for all companies, to have someone on the board who can grasp this, understand it and work with the management team to resolve any issues and help manage the risk.

Active Defense will be top of mind. Our customers are proactively bringing up MITRE’s Shield framework with us, which is phenomenal as it was only released in August. We’ve just scratched the surface now, but I think that this framework is going to play a significant role. It’s going to transition customers’ thinking to the perspective Illusive Networks has long been focused on: the understanding that proactive versus reactive defense is key. How do you add an active layer to your defense? I believe that’s going to play a significant role in security strategies in 2021.

Thanks to Ofer Israeli, CEO & Founder of Illusive Networks, for these 2021 Predictions. Learn more in our Endpoint Security Buyer’s Guide.