The top five security trends of the next decade: hackers to 'resemble drug cartels'

According to new research, the future generation of computer data security companies will have to protect consumers from the industrialisation of hacking, identity theft and an increasing amount of attacks carried out on social networking sites.

Data security firm, Imperva, released its study on December 8, stating the top five security trends they expect to see during the next ten years.

Imperva believes cyber criminals will band together in the future, "forming a supply chain that starkly resembles that of drug cartels."

Hackers will attack social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn luring unsuspecting individuals by hiding behind social applications and phishing email scams.

"As social platforms grow at an exponential rate I find this problem to be one of the most challenging for us in the next decade. An entire set of tools that would allow us to evaluate and express personal trust in this virtual society are yet to be developed and put to use by platform owners and consumers," commented Amichai Shulman, Imperva's chief technology officer.

"In the meantime, end users should rely on frequently updated anti-malware solutions as well as automatic security updates for their workstations. Organizations, who by now gave up on restricting the usage of social platforms from their enterprise networks, should emphasize the use of centrally managed anti-malware protection and secure surfing gateways."

Password grabbing will also increase in popularity over the next decade said Imperva, with hackers able to gain access to personal information contained in email accounts.

Imperva's five key security trends to watch for over the next ten years:
1. The industrialization of hacking
2. A move from application to data security
3. Increasing attacks through social network sites
4. An increase in credential theft/grabbing attacks
5. Transition from reactive to proactive security