By Business & Finance 
Pat Larkin, CEO, Ward Solutions
The Irish information security provider has announced its cybersecurity predictions for 2018. One of the main predictions sees Ward Solutions envisaging a cyberwar between countries.
Also among these predictions, Ward Solutions sees law enforcement agencies globally using cyber tactics in a forthright manner.
Ward sees governments adopting combative cyber strategies, addressing both aggressive nation states and state-backed cybercriminals. This will likely lead to the creation of a cybersecurity war and civilian populations being impacted by cyberattacks.
Cybercriminals will target critical infrastructure such as power grids; Ireland is not fully equipped to deal with the new large-scale attacks down the road, according to Ward.
The tech security firm also sees cybercriminals taking on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning for their attacks. In turn, organisations will use these technologies to further protect themselves. This will be evermore important with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect on 25 May.
The CEO of Ward Solutions, Pat Larkin, said: “2018 will see cybersecurity threats increase further in sophistication and the amount of damage that they can potentially cause. Furthermore, as state-sponsored groups increase their attacks on countries’ national infrastructures, civilians could begin to suffer as essential services come under strain. Ireland is particularly unprepared to deal with an attack on our critical national infrastructure, and to protect our interests we need to implement a comprehensive national cyber security strategy as soon as possible.
“There is clear evidence that state-sponsored cyberattacks are already happening around the world. Continued attacks on nations by cybercriminals will build legitimacy for national cyber response teams, and 2018 marks the tipping point when those targeted nations escalate their response to cyberattacks, which they now classify an act of war. Cyberattacks represent a very real threat to national security, and so expect countries to devise official coordinated defensive responses, utilising both cyber and physical, military force to protect their interests.
“We would expect certain nations to go on the offensive against hackers and launch coordinated cyber campaigns to disable them before they have the chance to strike. Offensive cyber strategies will become a key element in countries’ national defence plans, helping them to prevent attacks.”
