Technologies and innovations which didn't even exist a decade ago, have now strengthened their bedrock in industry. Every year serves something fresh and novel to the table. Technological advancement and improvisation have become a routine of each individual's life that it does not feature surprise element anymore.

Here, specifically talking about Cyber Security upgradation, we can say that the past year was definitely a remarkable year. Let's have a sneak peek at the timeline of 2018 from the cyber security perspective, below.

•  GDPR lastly got enforced in Europe in May, that tested the process of how governing bodies are finally becoming more thoughtful regarding citizen's personal data.

•  Organisations operating in Europe successfully encountered new repercussions of failing in protection of sensitive data, pushing us all together to the new level of global cyber security.

•  As the debates about state-sponsored hacking and cyber attacks over important infrastructures elevated across the globe, cyber security portrayed the role of protagonist in the international affairs scenario.

•  In context to business outlook, there is an uneasiness among concerned authorities regarding cybersecurity as some of them spelling out the privacy intrusion problem making a negative impact on digital transformation process.

•  Reportedly, a survey depicted that around 40 percent of users pointed out the security concern as most common issue whereas, 37 percent indicated towards privacy sensitivity.

Watching the previous year's trend, we can be more defensive in our ways in terms of cybersecurity and privacy data protection. To have a glance at key preparations for times ahead, here are the most anticipated cybersecurity trends to watch out in 2019.

AI as the main commander in the war against data breach

Artificial Intelligence, in the prevailing scenario, is the most revolutionary technology which can be perfectly used by businesses and organisations for curbing the issue. But not to forget the fact that this can also be employed by hackers and cyber criminals to plan and execute most sophisticated attacks. However, businesses can optimistically use it to identify and trace the crime. For instance, Machine learning-based forecast platform for cyber attacks can support researchers to resolve the issue at fast pace.

IoT innovation drives the cyber security transformation

Smart home devices, Internet of Things (IoT) technology are used largely in manufacturing and retail sector which makes cyber security an important aspect for customer sensitive data protection. The acceleration in the IoT technology is surely aiding the campaign to develop forthcoming security protocols to tackle the unexpected security threats in future. Moreover, IoT devices can help in identifying loopholes in the system too.

A new set of rules implementing data safety policies

As mentioned above, GDPR enforcement is one such example of the introduction of a new set of rules for data regulation which will prove to be more prominent in 2019. However, GDPR possesses a great challenge for businesses also. Businesses of all size are compelled to restructure their data policies to match up the revolutionary international data privacy regulations.

Cyber criminals impacting small businesses

Reportedly, other than the large scaled businesses, 58 percent of data breach activities take place targeting small businesses as they have low ranged budget to invest in data security. This vulnerable tendency of such ventures makes them a soft and easy target for hackers to intervene into. Where healthcare sectors are often become victim of such breaches, cyber attack risk has considerably reduced in the financial industry due to hefty investments in cyber security.

Spotlight to deviate from the impediment to recoiling

As the threats can no longer be dodged, it becomes significant to turn the spotlight to recognise and resolve the issue as quick as possible. In the current year, the shift from impediment to resilience will be sustained. The focus from cyber attack prevention will now be re-architected to protection protocols for the year 2019 and beyond.

Expertise in cyber security skills, need of the hour

The demand for skilled professionals will surely increase in the marketplace due to unstable dynamic of cyber threats evolving in business stations today. Globally, there is a shortage of cyber security skills with 2.9 million open vacancies which have crucially increased from 1.8 million recorded in the previous year. With the stock of companies undergoing digital evolution, the urge for cyber-security skills among prevailing labour force is increasing and leading to more and more recruitments of specialists in the concerned field.