Cybersecurity challenges to increase on a global level in 2017: Report

The increasing convergence of the technological and physical worlds will expand the security challenges globally and organisations will feel the long-term implications of this new digital ecosystem, a new report said on Wednesday.

The "2017 Cybersecurity Predictions Report", prepared by cybersecurity experts from web security firm Forcepoint and defence contractor company Raytheon looked at all aspects of cybersecurity, from business and individual behaviours to the impact of larger technology trends on governance and international engagement.

"The security challenges rising from the rapid integration of the digital and physical worlds in 2017 will be felt globally," Kris Lamb, Vice President of Forcepoint Threat Protection R&D and Security Labs, said in a statement.

According to Josh Douglas, Raytheon Foreground Security Chief Strategy Officer, "organisations think they get inherent security just by migrating to the cloud".

"But moving data off-site does not absolve organisations of their responsibility to secure it and best practices still matter. The end result of a rush to cloud computing without these considerations may mean a decreased security posture for many companies in 2017," added Douglas.

The report predicted the rise of voice-activated artificial intelligence (AI) to access web, data and apps will open up data privacy concerns.

"A new corporate-incentivised insider threat may clash with customer data, corporate profit and other performance goals, forcing businesses to re-evaluate their corporate environments and growth strategies," the report said.