In the run-up to Christmas and new year, we often look towards the year ahead and think of new beginnings and exciting times in front of us. We focus on achieving success in health and fitness, or in our careers. We like to be positive and think how things are going to improve and get better.

However, when we start to look at the trends in cyber security over the last year, and attempt to look ahead, it is a little more difficult to Aremain optimistic. The industry of cybercrime is growing and evolving, and is becoming very successful. It would be easy to fall into the trap of thinking about the negative, the fear, uncertainty and doubt that security professionals often rely on. If we fall into this trap and talk about how bad things are going to get, then we are fighting a losing battle that will make things much harder.

2017 and onwards will continue to produce an ever increasing and evolving threat. In our predictions download our security professionals from various areas of the business, tell us what they think have been the biggest developments in 2016 and more importantly, what they think will be the key areas to watch in 2017. Their predictions cover a number of angles, from regulation to new technologies and from skills shortages to advancing threats. There is no doubt, the times ahead are challenging and to face them effectively, we must take a strategy, systematic and risk based approach.

There is continuing work in developing the models and frameworks we can use to ensure an effective approach to information security, and these are developing all the time. Using a framework approach together with an effective risk management regime, will help us to effectively meet the many challenges ahead.