When it comes to defending cyberattacks, “this has been a tough year, and 2018 is going to be a tougher year,” according to Richard Ford, chief scientist at Forcepoint.

TechRepublic’s Dan Patterson met with Ford to discuss what cyberattacks businesses should start preparing for in 2018.

Ford said SSL attacks will be a “predictable surprise.” We’re ignoring how it’s creeping up, he added, and we’re going to start seeing more malware in the next year using SSL to hide behind.

SEE: How risk analytics can help your organization plug security holes (Tech Pro Research)

As we look ahead to cybersecurity in 2018, “it’s going to be a lot more of the same,” Ford said. Social media will continue to be leveraged as a way to hack, and any point of contact in the system will become a point of vulnerability. Ford also predicted a rise in more business email compromise. Companies need to be smart in how they’re going to defend against threats, he said.

In the coming year, Internet of Things (IoT) devices entering the market will continue to increase. IoT is difficult because we’re not very good at patching it yet, he said, and the disruption of things is where attackers will start looking.

“If you think it’s annoying having your files encrypted, it’s going to be more annoying when you can’t unlock your car,” he said.

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