The year behind us has brought much cybersecurity-related news, and not all of it was good. With the multitude of high-profile breaches and reports of IoT devices used to carry out DDoS attacks and cybercriminals becoming more daring; it’s been a challenging year for cybersecurity. Some of these trends are likely to continue throughout the New Year as well. Let’s have a look at our year-end IoT security awareness and predictions, so we’d know what to expect:

One of the inherent problems of IoT is the slow pace of adopting new, modern regulation to govern this area. The natural state of the industry is fast-paced and evolving at a quick rate, and the rule has to be followed. Compliance with the existing regulations and certifications is undoubtedly substantial, but if cybercriminals are ahead of the game, we might get a situation on our hands where being compliant only creates a false sense of security.

With the increased use of connected devices, it’s becoming more critical than ever to make them “secure by design.” Enhancing trust in linked things will be one of the primary missions in the time ahead of us, for everyone involved in the IoT industry. And that’s going to be a requirement going forward, considering the vast array of cybersecurity threats that we are likely to face.

It’s safe to predict that our devices will get smarter in the coming year, and considering the number of useful features they can offer, more people will become interested in new technologies. Smart TVs, refrigerators, toys, and other home items might become more widely targeted as a result. Ransomware is likely to become a more common type of attack, locking down these devices and requiring a fee to unlock them.

High profile breaches were all over the news this year, and the affected companies have suffered enormous losses due to their cybersecurity failures. Seeing what has happened, it’s likely that the majority of enterprises have finally understood that their operational risk strategy needs to involve cybersecurity insurance. We can also expect this type of insurance to evolve to provide better coverage for the businesses that don’t have it yet.

Unfortunately, cybercriminals are often one step ahead of the established cybersecurity measures, especially in the IoT area. We can expect this trend to continue, and the attackers to come up with new ways to endanger our smart devices and the systems through which they connect. New types of ransomware, botnet attacks, as well as bigger and bolder strategies are all likely going to play a big part in how this year will unfold cybersecurity-wise.

As challenging as the year behind us was, the coming year is likely going to make it look easy. We’re likely to see more of a focus on cybersecurity and improving the design of IoT devices so that their inherent vulnerabilities are more difficult to exploit. However, we can also expect the attackers to get smarter and even more inventive, so there will likely still be significant breaches and plenty of reasons for concern.