In 2015, data science and machine learning will become the focus of the fight on cyber-attacks, cyber security will get social, and new entrants will continue to disrupt the cyber security market. This is all according to Mike Banic, Vice President of Marketing at Vectra Networks, a provider of real-time, automated, cyber-attack detection and reporting software.

Banic’s predictions about emerging technologies are all part of our second annual Technology Predictions series in which industry experts share their predictions with us about the hot tech trends that they think will take center stage in 2015. We’ll be sharing all of their predictions with you over the next several days. Read on for more from Banic.

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Prediction No. 1: Data science and machine learning will become the focus of the fight on cyber-attacks

As cyber-attacks have become more complex—involving multiple steps, hosts and pieces of malware—traditional security that uses signatures and reputation lists to identify individual malware or exploits are increasingly incapable of seeing the real scope of an attack. In 2015, applying data science to the challenges of cyber security will become a necessity to reveal all the moving parts of a complex attack (such as the ones that were behind the attack on Sony, JP Morgan, Home Depot and the steady stream of other data breaches during 2014).

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Prediction No. 2: Cyber security will get social

In 2015, cyber security will follow the lead of traditional law enforcement investigations by applying machine learning to map out the interconnections and communities associated with malicious acts. In the same way that law enforcement analyzes communication patterns to identify and track terrorist cells, next year cyber security will increasingly track communities within networks to establish normal connections and track malicious outliers.

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Prediction No. 3: New entrants will continue to disrupt the cyber security market

The past several years have seen a continuous wave of new evolution in the IT security market as new entrants such as Palo Alto Networks Inc. and FireEye, Inc. have redefined firewalls and anti-malware technologies. The accelerating frequency and sophistication of cyber-attacks will continue to fuel security innovation. In 2015, new approaches will be introduced that are dedicated to exposing the long-term network intrusions that are becoming the norm for modern attackers.

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2015 Technology Predictions graphic courtesy of SiliconANGLE