Cybersecurity has not only dominated the headlines in the wake of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Sony hacks, it has become a big business opportunity as well. The demand for protection in the cyber domain is rising across the world. According to current projections, cybersecurity firms can look forward to significant industry growth, with the market estimated to rise from $75.4 billion in 2015 to a value of $170 billion by 2020. However, the cybersecurity industry is still relatively young, and it is approaching a key point in its development that will be influenced by the confluence of several key factors.
First and foremost, the cyber attacks surface has been expanding rapidly for some time—a truth that is becoming more evident with every successful large-scale hack. The “attack surface” describes all the potential parts of a system that a hacker could attack in order to gain access to a system. This attack surface has grown from exclusively networked computers, to now include mobile devices like phones and tablets. The rise of the Internet of Things is starting to create yet more points of vulnerability, as all manner of devices—refrigerators, pace makers, cars, etc.—are becoming networked together. Penetrating one can give hackers access into all. At present, the cybersecurity industry is still figuring out how to handle this issue. The way in which the cybersecurity industry meets the challenge posed by an increasingly networked society will have a profound impact on its overall development.
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