One of the most controversial data breaches of 2015 was the Ashley Madison scandal. This particular breach also added the additional bonus of smearing the end-user’s name.

What kind of impact will the Ashley Madison case have for future cybersecurity threats? What does it mean for both a business and an end-user? We asked the experts to share their thoughts on the Ashley Madison scandal and security trends we should expect to see in 2016 as businesses and consumers combat hackers.

If you can’t protect it, don’t collect it

Stephen Cox, chief security architect at SecureAuth Corp.

Ashley Madison will act as a reminder of the security mantra, “If you can’t protect it, don’t collect it.” We will see an increasing adversity to storing PII [Personally identifiable information] if it’s not necessary to business operations. Increased government surveillance will reach a point where tech-savvy companies, such as Facebook, provide “.onion” addresses that are only accessible from within the Tor network.

Cyber attacks will enhance traditional crime methods 

Andrzej Kawalec, CTO of HPE Security Services at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

To prevent hackers from publicly airing their victims’ dirty laundry, hackers are increasingly urging victims to pay ransom. After the Ashley Madison breach, more of these incidents are sure to follow simply because they’re proven to work. The comingling of traditional crime methods and information stolen via cyber intrusions is set to explode, and the JPMorgan data breach is a perfect example. In the modern era, sometimes the means to perpetrate a massive crime is as simple as acquiring the right list of email addresses.

Push-back from consumers

Grayson Milbourne, security intelligence director at Webroot

Tools that prevent unintentional data collection – such as cookie blockers, microphones, malicious advertisements and camera blockers – will be increasingly adopted by consumers. Many of these tools block ads indiscriminately, which will have an impact on legit sites ability to fund themselves. Consumers will also require web companies to disclose consumer data use and how it is being protected.

Growth in biometrics

Stephen Cox, chief security architect at SecureAuth Corp.

Biometrics will take a larger role as a second factor as organizations grow more and more distrustful of the password. The ubiquity of personal devices with biometrics sensors will make this possible. Open standards friendly to biometric privacy, such as FIDO, will help adoption. 2016 will be the year of adaptive authentication. In many attacks we saw in 2015, attackers were not using malware, they were simply using stolen credentials to log into the environment. With organizations moving to the cloud, there will be an increasing number of authentication touchpoints in an organization, and those will need to be protected with technology that can rapidly identify and respond to threats.

Hackers will truly embrace the Internet of Things

Mark Painter, security evangelist for HPE Security Products at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

We’ve been talking about the Internet of Things (IoT) for some time, but in 2016, IoT will rapidly expand the attack surface and present a very real threat to individuals, businesses and governments. Adversaries will exploit the influx of connected devices – everything from watches to cars to critical national infrastructure – to obtain personal and sensitive information. IoT represents the next battleground as we move toward smarter environments and adversaries advance their tactics to take advantage of new vulnerabilities that arise.

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