The advance of technology is relentless. During 2018, most companies are planning to consolidate what they have been sowing for years: the Digital Transformation. It is no longer a matter of thinking about what could be improved, but of laying the groundwork for future long-term investments. Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and Cryptotechnologies. are the main technological keys for a 2018 of starts after a period of strong global economic changes.
As experts in digital solutions, in the Zemsania Group we want to analyze what are the main technology trends we expect to see in 2018 according to the analysis carried out by the experts of the MIT Do you want to know what this year has in store for us? Read on!
Cybersecurity against Hacker AI
The hackers always find new tools and methods to bypass the defenses that protect data. One of the most serious cases of cyberattacks in 2017 was the one that affected Equifax, in which hackers appropriated numbers and dates of birth of the US population mirad. In Spain, the Ministry of Interior detected more than 66,000 cybercrimes in 2016 alone. Not only is the search for obtain data such as users' credit card numbers or phone numbers, but cyber-attacks have reached a new level, as they even seek to obtain users' browsing history.
During 2017 we also saw a proliferation of ransomware attacks, which affected organizations such as Britain's National Health Service or companies like FedEx. The cybercriminals' procedure is usually always the same: break the security barriers with malware to encrypt the files and ask for a ransom in order to unlock them. In cases where companies do not have a backup of the files, they end up paying the hackers all the money they ask for through cryptocurrencies.
According to MIT experts, the main target of cyber-attacks in 2018 will be cloud computing companies, The cloud is a huge data center, storing millions of company data, email addresses or image libraries. Some of the major Cloud operators such as Google, Amazon and IBM have already started to hire the best minds in cybersecurity, although smaller companies that do not have an effective system in place to protect themselves from hackers could risk having their files hijacked.
One of the biggest risks experts see from this year onwards is that hackers will start to use the capabilities of the artificial intelligence and machine learning to achieve greater success in their attacks, as cybersecurity companies are already doing for their part.
Blockchain-based cryptotechnologies
In 2018, there will be an increase in applications and protocols based on tokenization, which refers to the replacement of certain sensitive data with tokens that identify and retain the information without compromising its security.
Experts are working to develop solutions based on the attributes of the blockchain technology and combine them with Artificial Intelligence.. The goal of this new combination is to encourage a more secure and efficient way of sharing data and to develop a new way of sharing models. Thanks to this new paradigm, for example, there may exist the Smart Contract,a new type of technology that gives a static document the power to react and dialogue with other documents, and that can automatically authorize or paralyze a legal process as ordered in the clauses of the contract to which it is subject.
As we said, one of the main concerns of this new type of technology is cyber attacks. According to MIT, currently one of the main targets of hackers around the world are Bitcoin holders and other cryptocurrencies based, precisely, on blockchain.
AI
The improvement of Artificial Intelligence will bring with it a new paradigm of software development with new mechanisms for interfaces. One of the main novelties, according to MIT, is that new intelligent software will be able to incorporate voice in its interfaces.
After years of prototyping, automation and new technologies have been Artificial Intelligence based softwares will dominate the agenda of all CIOs. According to experts, there will be a huge investment in this type of technology, which will also allow many startups to grow exponentially.
These changes in terms of the actual use of Artificial Intelligence will also be accompanied by a investment in strategy and organizational change of companies. Therefore, the companies that will grow the most will be those that do not see Artificial Intelligence as a simple tool to save costs, but as a complex instrument to expand their offerings and completely change the way they offer their services.