Data security specialist, Imperva, has released its predictions for the top ten security trends for 2011.

They predict that the top ten security trends for 2011 will include:

•Nation-sponsored hacking, like the Stuxnet worm, will build on concepts and techniques from the commercial hacker industry to create more powerful advanced persistent threats (APT).

•Growing awareness of security incidents due to insiders. Attention will grow as a consequence of an increased flow of incident reports where data theft and security breaches are tied to employees and other insiders. The cause of this trend, says Imperva, will be the emphasis put on new regulations covering the act of notification and disclosure (rather on the actual protection of data).

•'Man in the Browser Attacks' (MitB) will increase, and there will be a growth in the role played by MitB attacks in cyber-criminal activity.

•Social network security will improve with the most prominent social networks, and tools, placing more efforts into security over privacy.

•File security takes center stage; greater number of data breaches where compromised data is in the form of files rather than database records.

•Mobile devices compromise data security - proliferation of sophisticated mobile devices is going to have a substantial effect on application and data security.

•A greater emphasis will be placed on application security offerings in the cloud throughout 2011, with Imperva predicting the emergence of some early data security in the cloud offerings.

•CISOs and security professionals will need to become business process experts to better protect data as it flows through enterprise systems.

•The hacking industry will consolidate as amateurs shut down and consolidation among larger, organised groups takes place.

•Convergence of data security and privacy regulation worldwide. As more and more governments implement data security and privacy laws, Imperva expects a degree of convergence to take place.

Amichai Shulman, CTO, Imperva observes, “I anticipate that the threat landscape will evolve in many directions, making data security more challenging than ever. The biggest potential impact will be caused by the proliferation of sophisticated mobile devices interacting with corporate networks. Additionally, hacker activity will consolidate into a relatively small number of stronger more powerful and resourceful criminal organisations. One of the key attacks I expect to see a significant rise in are so-called man-in-the-browser attacks as criminals target the weakest link – end users. Finally, insider threats will become more prominent as regulations force organisations to become more transparent.”

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