Abstract
The introduction of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation in May 2018 is expected to improve corporate IT networks and decrease data hacks so widespread in previous years. What is more worrying and certain for the year ahead is the continuing growth in ransomware. While $1 billion was lost to ransomware worldwide in 2016, the 2017’s losses jumped to eye watering (estimated) $5 billions. The real figures are likely to be higher given that many organisations are reluctant to admit their systems were penetrated and locked. Ransomware is low risk, high reward malware available on the dark web ‘as-a-service’, so its continued spread in 2018 is inevitable. According to leading cyber security experts interviewed by the IET, doing nothing is not an option for the majority of companies and there is a lot they can do.
