Security trends to look out for in the new year

“We are living in the most exciting times in the history of modern technology,” notes Steven Van Till, President and CEO of Brivo and Chairman of the Security Industry Association (SIA) Standards. “Technological currents have converged and amplified and remixed with each other to accelerate the pace of innovation. Now, physical security is no longer just physical—modern security systems are cyber-physical systems, inheriting both the power and pitfalls of the digital world.”

As the security sector undergoes enormous evolutions, both innovations and exploitations will proliferate.

At the end of 2017, the SIA’s annual Securing New Ground (SNG^TM) Conference collected 2018 security trend predictions from the experts. From the minds of top security executives, new entrants to the marketplace, investors and SIA’s contributing specialists came the second ever “Security Megatrends Report^TM.”

 

The report notes that while the industry has seen a marked growth in physical security, information technology, logical security and cyber sectors, security has been greatly influenced by sea changes in our daily technology capabilities. The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the landscape. Physical security enterprises now incorporate Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), and mobile devices increasingly monitor and manage our security.

 

We’ve recapped these megatrends here:

 

1. The IoT is Taking Over: This makes life easier (and more vulnerable) for all of us. In 2017, consumers and enterprises spent almost $2 trillion on the 8.4 billion connected devices and their corresponding services. That number is expected to balloon to 50 billion devices by 2020, and security breaches will grow commensurately.
2. Everything Will Be Connected: Tomorrow’s smart homes will monitor and report real-time analytics on how every system is faring. As consumers continue to embrace this connectivity and the cloud, security providers will be able to help with more systems, including lighting and energy management.
3. We’re Making Swifter Sense of Smart and Big Data: By 2020, each person will generate 1.7 megabytes of new information per second. Add the data generated by sensors, medical records and corporate databases, and only AI and Augmented Reality (AR) can reasonably organize and analyze this incomprehensible volume. Security companies must find ways to protect this data with ever-evolving smart cyber controls.
4. Social Media Aids Security: As a wide-reaching communications tool, social media will assist with more real-time emergency communications, relying on an increasing ability to geographically pinpoint specific individuals who may be affected by disasters relayed to them through video surveillance.
5. Mobilization: Smartphones are already indispensable. With biometric recognition and credentials capabilities, they’ll become our mobile physical access passes. Security companies are also deploying cloud-based PACS.
6. The Cloud Continues to Grow: Increasing connectivity plus convergence and integration with IoT, mobile devices and other solutions means that more businesses and consumers are embracing the cloud. Security providers will be offering more cloud hosting services, which have the added benefit of ingrained cybersecurity features.
7. Security Providers Are Changing: The role of security provider is constantly evolving, especially in offering everything-as-a-service. Newer companies without IT backgrounds will continue to move into the market with interactive products, DIY management and self-installation. Month-to-month contracts will replace longer commitments.
8. Entrepreneurs Enter the Security Scene: Outside companies, startups and IT-focused companies are realizing the security marketplace’s value and augmenting the segment with data analytics, convergence and IoT; models are moving away from security monitoring-based revenue to providing greater product innovation.
9. Physical Security is Increasingly at Cyber-risk: The number of cyber threats broke a record in 2016, and ransomware’s use as an insidious extortion tool has grown. Security companies are looking to strengthen physical systems and add cyber safeguards. As a result, cybersecurity as a service will grow.
10. Everyone’s Responsible for Risk Management: Business security risks abound, crossing corporate silos from HR to IT, to relationships with suppliers. All departments must work together with security providers to predict and identify physical and cyber-risks and then create comprehensive plans to mitigate and eliminate them.

 

2018 promises more and bigger changes in the security realm. IST welcomes these innovations, as a security provider that has always been on the cutting edge of technology. From offering cloud hosting services to integrating our VMS technology with AI, to providing mobile device operated security systems, we’re always seeking out the best ways to keep your physical and cyber-world secured.

 

We’ll explore each of these trends in greater depth in our upcoming posts. For more information on how IST can help you leverage what’s to come, contact us here.