Cyber Security Trends and Predictions: Interview with Joe Baum, Director of Threat Management at Motorola Solutions

Cyber criminals have certainly enjoyed watching droves of people transition to a stay-at-home lifestyle on a global scale, finding ways to exploit the movement to an online digital-first world drove most cyber security trends in 2020. Typical security boundaries dissolved as businesses, schools, and more hastily jumped into a remote environment without the time necessary to consider appropriate processes and tools for collaboration as well as a sound security posture. This created a unique and unprecedented threat landscape for security teams, making detection and response challenging when dealing with untested and unanticipated security weaknesses.

In a time of uncertainty and high-stress for a remote workforce, user behavior also changed, adding an extra layer to the cyber security trends we witnessed. This shift compounded challenges that already existed even in the best of times, and human error became an even greater "weak link" for adequate cyber security. In an environment where security practices cannot adapt quickly enough and overwhelmed users experience an inundation of phishing scams and other cyber threats, mistakes are inevitable. It's only a matter of time before there is another successful cyber attack.

We spoke with Joe Baum, Director of Threat Management at Motorola Solutions, to gather his insights on cyber security trends and predictions as we move further into 2021. Joe is an "organically" developed cyber security professional, operating a Threat Intelligence and Penetration team for Motorola Solutions. His organization collects and refines intelligence on threats against customers and products and helps developers validate their products to meet the cybersecurity integrity necessary. Joe holds CISSP®, CSSLP®, and CCSP® certifications from (ISC)2 and is also a Certified Cyber Intelligence Tradecraft Analyst. In this post, we spoke with Joe about cyber security trends that defined 2020, his predictions on how cyber security will change in 2021, as well as critical considerations for IT Blue Teams.

What Cybersecurity Trend Defined 2020?

How will Cyber Security Change in 2021?

As we have seen every year, the balance between defenders and threat actors continues to change. Often the trends we observe are directly linked to the move, counter-move nature of the struggle, and 2020 was no different. Threat actors essentially doubled down on existing capabilities and challenged defenders to stop them. In 2021, security teams must once again rise to meet new challenges posed by these threat actors.

To learn more about the top threat trends from 2020, including new ransomware tricks, as well as predictions on the tactics and techniques expected to increase in 2021, download the free ZeroFox report on The Future of Digital Threats.