2020, on the other hand, basically just has Cyberpunk 2020. Which isn’t to say that’s not an accurate picture. If the raft of experts we’ve compiled to unpack all the upcoming tech trends, challenges, and phenomena of 2020 have anything to say about it, our cyberpunk dystopia will only kick into gear during the upcoming year. In the near future, big data is getting bigger, security risks are growing, and state-sponsored hackers are hellbent on crippling our national infrastructure. It’s a natural progression from last year, when the average cost of cybercrime to an organization leapt from $1.4 million to $13 million, according to a global study from Accenture. Turn up the Leonard Cohen, because our tech predictions want it darker. Here are 12 takeaways on everything from industry-wide 5G security flaws to IoT-powered corporate espionage. But cool your jets a little. 2020 won’t be 5G’s breakout year, even if it the new tech is well on its way. Jansen isn’t alone: Shehzad Merchant, Chief Technology Officer at Gigamon, said much the same. And to make matters worse, all those companies hoping to speed up their 5G adaptation might just be leaving themselves open to security issues that they could have avoided by taking the slow-but-steady path. In the years to come, 5G will be huge. We just need to remember not to move so fast that we blow the security doors off in the process. But it’s not all bad news. 5G will come to the rescue in at least one major way, by helping emergency response teams take their services to the next level. It’s not a moment too soon. Weather-related disasters are increasing with climate change, and will shape the future of tech in 2020. It’s a looming question that IT will need to be ready for, so we can expect forward-looking companies to start intiating any relevant readiness prep in the new year. A few big areas to improve on include the time it takes a family doctor to complete a checkup. Between waiting time, filling out questionnaires, and the actual exam, it might take a patient an hour and a half, but clinical studies in a few European countries have cut the time to an average of nine minutes when consultating through telemedicine. It’s a win-win: the doctors consult more patients without lowering their standards, while the insurer and the government save money thanks to shorter consultation times. If you’re currently working on a spy novel, it looks like the headlines in 2020 will offer plenty of fodder for it. And the story should include an AI-loving superhacker, because that’s our next entry. “For example, Microsoft recently spotted Strontium attempting to compromise popular IoT devices across multiple customer locations by using VoIP phones, an office printer and a video decoder as an entry point into their targets’ internal networks. Once in, they scanned for other vulnerable systems to expand this initial foothold and moved laterally. I expect that this is only a prologue to a huge influx of corporate espionage attacks.”
And it gets worse. While most AI-powered hackers might just be interested in businesses and can be bought off, state-sponsored hackers have grander aims. “‘Impersonation attacks’ will become more common as AI is used to automatically generate spear-phishing emails that expertly mimic the writing style of trusted contacts and colleagues, or even to create ‘deep fake’ videos designed to confuse. While human attacks would need hours of social network research to perform such an attack, the AI attacker can do this in seconds.” With all those hackers around, it’s good to hear that citizens’ fears of lax data security and social platforms’ expliotation will have an impact in 2020. Here’s the best prediction on our list yet: The data gold mines are closing up, according to KJ Dearie, product specialist and privacy consultant for Termly. We may even see a national data privacy law passed in the US. Independently, Rita Heimes, Data Protection Officer at the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), gave Tech.co the same prediction, saying that in 2020, “U.S. Congress will feel tremendous pressure to pass a comprehensive, pre-emptive consumer privacy law.” There’s one potential path forward in lieu of a national law, however: A confusing morass of new laws determined on a state-by-state basis, which will create a tough balancing act for businesses and ultimately slow down expansion everywhere. “Unless there is consistency of approach between states, it will become more difficult for companies to comply with all the different policies out there,” cautions Dave Brunswick, VP of Solutions at Cleo. Ultimately, a large handful of the experts we approached for predictions all arrived at the same conclusion. 2020, they say, will mark a turning point for data privacy, largely due to the efforts of privacy-conscious consumers. In other words, near-future conferences will feel the same virtually as they would in-person. “Thanks to advanced audio innovations like adaptive beamforming technology and cutting-edge software integration, the trend towards remote working will continue to grow, ensuring true integration of remote and on-site teams.” Other big targets in 2020 include the first ever online U.S. census and the Olympic games in Tokyo, notes Mounir Hahad, head of the Juniper Threat Labs at Juniper Networks. One of those election weak links that we should have addressed already? Peter Goldstein, CTO and Co-founder Valimail calls out email security specifically when it comes to the election. You heard it here first. Or you’ve been hearing it endlessly since 2016. Depends on who you follow on Twitter. But research shows the majority of U.S. states are overlooking this vulnerability. Only 5% of email domains associated with local election officials across the U.S. have implemented and enforced DMARC. DMARC is a widely accepted open standard that ensures only authorized senders can send emails from a particular domain – it’s one of the most basic and highly effective means of stopping phishing attacks, which is why the Department of Homeland Security mandated its use for federal agencies in 2017. Yet below the federal level, governments remain vulnerable. In May 2019 we learned Russian hackers breached two county election systems in Florida via a spear-phishing campaign, and in November we learned of a phishing-based ransomware attack on Louisiana during an election cycle. Because only a tiny percentage of counties and states have DMARC configured at enforcement, email is an easy way in for malicious actors looking to disrupt our elections.” Will we fix our AI bias fast enough? Not according to our last prediction. It’s tough to argue with Carder, given the flaws present in our justice system as it is. And this seems like an appropriate note to end our series of (mostly) depressing predictions for the trajectory of the tech industry in 2020. The continued fallout of poor past tech decisions is unavoidable, whether it’s imprisoning an innocent person or security holes a hacker can sic an AI on. But that doesn’t mean we can’t push forwards with the right solutions to craft a better world. From improving our data regulation laws to tackling AI bias head on, we’ll start guiding our technological innovations towards a brighter future in 2020.
