Top trends in Security The top trend: Additional insights Expanding Edge and Notably, the cost and availability of security insurance ranked at number two. This was one of the two times the write-in votes Increasing Surface Area changed the order of the rankings, moving it up a place. The rea- son this trend ranked so highly is that, previously, this insurance of Attacks was a safety net for enterprises. It gave them a roadmap for what security positions they must focus on and bolster, while protect- The point at which a private corporate network meets the ing their 昀椀nancial risk and liabilities should there be an event. public internet is a point of failure in your defenses. This edge has been expanding over decades as new technologies are However, the actuaries in the insurance industry have seen an adopted. For example, mobile workforces and the devices they alarming increase in events and consequently payouts, and so use– such as Personal Digital Assistants (like Palm Pilots and the cost of premiums is rising. Some insurance companies are Treos), then Blackberries, laptops then tablets, and now the reducing benefits or leaving the space altogether. With the fail- ubiquitous smartphone– have continually and rapidly evolved. safe being not so safe anymore, the onus is back on IT leaders to The pandemic of 2020 and the resulting lockdowns pushed the protect the enterprise. majority of the workforce to remote work, an unprecedented digital migration that expanded the edge exponentially. The number three and four positions, Cloud, Mobile, and/ or IoT Threats and Social and/or Behavioral Engineering respectively, could be aligned with the Expanding Edge trend, Edge Computing is a key trend. It which makes this an overwhelmingly important issue according brings data processing and analytics to our advisory partners. Social and Behavioral Engineering is problematic in the sense that it expands the surface area of your closer to the source or device. network by making humans, not just equipment, a point of failure in your defenses. The edge is pushed even further as smart devices (like Amazon Lastly, Geopolitical Instability and State Sponsored Cyber- Echoes, Google Home/Nest devices, and the smart devices crime Threats came in last place, but that doesn’t indicate a they control like smart lamps and speakers) and IoT devices lack of present risk. Overall, what’s happening in geopolitics can start to touch corporate networks for the first time. contribute to the overall volume of cybercrime. This will impact all enterprises, not just ones that may be intentionally targeted As the edge expands, so does the surface area of your network due to the nature of their business, like electrical grids or the and the risk of penetration. Our advisory partners believe that aerospace industry. IT leaders must prioritize the triage and future-proofing of this security risk. Paradigms like Zero Trust and technologies like SASE will be the standard in the future, and we believe 2024 is, in fact, the latest that enterprises should start adopting them. UPSTACK © The 2024 Technology Trends Report | 5