Cybersecurity is quickly becoming one of the most important industries out there.
It’s no surprise, either – anyone who stays up to date with the online world will be only too aware of the chaotic goings-on of recent times.
Gone are the days when all users had to worry about were Trojan horses and spam emails. Large-scale, highly sophisticated attacks take place with terrifying frequency nowadays, and they’re on the rise.
And in Blockchain, new promising cybersecurity ventures like Gladius.io are now emerging.
Cybercrime costs are expected to hit $6 trillion by 2020, which has a lot to do with the growing volume of data online. The Internet of Things (IoT), devices like webcams and portable speakers that connect to the internet, is also a risk factor as these are often poorly defended and a prime target for hackers.
The number of IoT devices has been predicted to reach 200 million by 2020, so defense in this area is a massive concern.
With all these new developments and worrying predictions, cybersecurity companies have had their work cut out for them. The industry has been going through a pretty impressive growth spurt and is projected to be worth $170 billion by 2020.
What’s more, spending in weak areas is on the rise too. IoT spending is forecast to reach $547.2 million by 2018, up from ‘just’ $231 billion in 2014.
Worrying weaknesses
However, there are some gaping holes in the security industry. A spine-chilling study by Harvard Business Review found that even the best antivirus software only catches around 5% of new threats.
The best performances by software only manage to deal with 80-90% of real threats, and Symantec found that three-quarters of all websites have exploitable vulnerabilities.
It’s all pretty unsettling stuff, and unfortunately, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. With the current rapid pace of technological development, lots of the near-future threats to cyber security could be things we have no idea about right now.
New IoT devices and functions, the rise of artificial intelligence, and cars (90% of cars are expected to be online by 2020 according to one prediction) are just some of the areas that might pose huge threats to our online safety in coming years.
If that’s not scary enough, many are predicting a rise in cyber warfare with nation states using cyberattacks to wage conflicts in the digital sphere.
What’s the answer?
It’s clear that more must be done to defend against the growing arsenal of cyber threats facing us. To work out the best solution, it’s important to take a look at why current cybersecurity systems are allowing threats to slip through the net.
The main providers out there are spending vast amounts of money, researching frantically, and seemingly doing everything in their power to keep the pace with developments. And for the most part, they’re doing a great job.
So what can they do better? LevelNet thinks they may have the answer.
A fractured community
LevelNet believes that one of the biggest problems in the cybersecurity world is a lack of collaboration between the big service providers. This makes it difficult to properly co-ordinate responses to large-scale attacks and come up with effective ways to defend against future threats.
The cybersecurity industry is made up of several huge, monolithic companies constantly jostling for the top spot. There’s no one clear winner, each company has its own strengths and comparative weaknesses, and comparison surveys find it hard to agree on which one is best.
The good news here is that most big cyber security software providers will give you a decent amount of cover. The bad news is that, unless you pay for literally all of them, there are going to be some gaping holes in the defenses.
There’s also a lack of communication between these giants.
So if one company detects a threat, it takes a long time for that information to filter through to the other big providers (and their customers). In that window of time, criminals can do a whole lot of damage.
What’s more, cybersecurity providers today tend to focus more on existing threats and ignore future possibilities. Basically, the software detects threats on users’ devices by comparing them with a database of already known signatures.
This relies on the security provider having an enormous collection of previously-identified threat signatures, a database which is constantly evolving and requires customers to regularly update their software or face dire consequences.
In terms of anticipating future threats which have never been encountered, there’s worryingly little.
LevelNet’s solution
LevelNet plan to create a network, built from users of various different cybersecurity programs. They’ll be connected in real time, and able to share information about emerging threats quickly to the rest of the network.
To join the network, you’ll need to buy some LevelNet tokens, which will allow access to the entire ecosystem along with intellectual property rights.
The idea is that threats can be detected far more effectively. Instead of relying on time-consuming research by security providers, threats can be detected by a single user’s security software and relayed to the entire network in a relatively short amount of time.
Threats will be detected as they emerge, and after a risk assessment, action can be taken quickly and decisively to put a stop to them across the entire network of providers.
The hope is to create a new way of doing cybersecurity, one that will minimize damage by minimizing response time and maximizing co-operation between the different security providers and their customers.