In 2015, hackers exposed 170 million personal records in the U.S., according to the Identify Theft Resource Center. The attacks cost businesses worldwide more than $400 billion, British insurance company Lloyd's revealed.

So what's the data breach forecast for 2016? It's not looking good, according to cybersecurity experts.

“In today's environment of advanced and targeted threats, it is imperative to assume that data breaches will continue to happen into 2016 and beyond,” Scott Gordon, COO of the San Jose, Calif.-based FinalCode said. “Therefore, companies should proactively take steps to protect sensitive documents inside and outside their organizations.”

Paul Jespersen, vice president of emerging technologies at the Clifton, N.J.-based Comodo, commented, “More than in almost any other industry, banking and financial services are exposed to a growing variety of threats, especially as customers demand more flexibility and mobile access. This will accelerate in 2016, and we can expect to see more major breaches in banking and POS applications.”

Stu Sjouwerman, founder/CEO of the Clearwater, Fla.-based KnowBe4, warned of one specific hacking method criminals are likely to focus on.

“In 2016, you will see an integrity attack in the financial sector in which millions of dollars will be stolen by cyber thieves who will modify selected data in the transaction stream, resulting in a significant redirection of payment to anonymized accounts,” he said. “How they will get in? Spear phishing.”

Data thieves will take advantage of weak passwords or other holes found within critical or sensitive systems, another expert noted.

“Hackers are specifically looking for personally identifiable information to steal, to ultimately sell on the black market,” Dodi Glenn, vice president, cybersecurity at the Sioux City, Iowa-based PC Pitstop, pointed out. “IT admins need to ensure they have strong passwords, and are consistently monitoring the health of the network for potential threats. They also need to ensure their systems are patched, and do not contain vulnerabilities.”

Jespersen said he expects to see a continued shift from simple, executable malware to increasingly faster introductions of new, creative and advanced persistent threats and exploits, including some that are extremely targeted.

Targeted distributed denial of service attacks may also arise, particularly when a company angers the public, Glenn warned.

“The loosely formed hacking group Anonymous has published tools that are designed to take down websites and servers by sending bogus data to them,” he said.

Advanced endpoint solutions are becoming increasingly important, especially those that provide coordinated detection and analysis to help thwart evolving threats, experts advised.

Learn more about what cybersecurity experts foresee for 2016 in the Jan. 13, 2016 print issue of Credit Union Times.

Instant Insights /

Cybersecurity Woes to Intensify in 2016

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