As usual, we have the requisite Information Security Predictions for the coming New Year:

Jeff Harris, vice president of solutions for Ixiamp, sees a ramp up in weaponization of the Internet of Things (IoT) to carry out widescale DDoS attacks in 2017

James Carder, CISO of LogRhythm, predicts that in 2017 we could be in for a total shut down of the Internet for up to 24 hours

Lamar Bailey, senior director of security R&D at Tripwire, believes 2017 will see the return of the worm with IoT devices

Bruce Snel of McAfee sees IoT malware opening a backdoor into homes

From time to time, I like to compare and contrast the nascent Information Security profession with more traditional and established occupations. For example when I had lunch with a police officer friend and gave it some food for thought.

As recent events with the Democratic National Committee (DNC) being hacked solidify the fact that we cannot seem to secure anything connected to the Internet, one has to wonder if elections can also be hacked. The topic of “Hacking the Vote” reminds me of one of my favorite InfoSec security maxims; “high technology is often taken as a license to stop thinking critically”.

In the report, What does Information Security have in common with Eastern Air Lines Flight 401? - I posit that one byproduct of professionalizing Information Security will be elevating it to the board level where it belongs.

Alvin Toffler, an American writer and futurist known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communication revolution and technological singularity, once said, “You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.”

I recently spoke at the IT Audit and Controls Conference in Florida. I was doing my normal cantankerous venting about how businesses do not get that Information Security is a business problem and not just an IT problem. In fact, one recent study found that 80% of the total value of the Fortune 500 now consists of intellectual property and other intangibles.