Five Security Predictions for 2011

While security is always on the minds of IT professionals to one degree or another, the folks at IBM think that 2011 will bring some fundamental changes to the way IT organizations think about and mange security.

Here’s a list of five security predictions for 2011 that promise to change the strategic role IT security plays in your organization.

Click through for five security predictions from IBM.

Securing mobile devices and other smartphones will become an increased priority, especially as more and more employees attempt to access corporate networks with their own personal mobile devices.

Attacks on critical infrastructures, such as electric grids, water systems, etc. will become top targets for cyber criminals looking to make a big impact with little effort. As the threat landscape becomes more sophisticated, cyber criminals aren't just looking to attack or steal data, but are setting their sights on critical infrastructures to cause harm.

The adoption of innovative technologies such as cloud computing, social networking and virtualization requires specific types of security. We will see more organizations take a "one size fits none" approach to adopting cloud security, rather than a generic, broad-brush approach.

Governments will put an increased emphasis on global compliance mandates, creating new complexities for businesses to navigate through. Staying on top of changes in the compliance landscape will remain a top of mind priority for organizations.

Enterprises will put a renewed focus on looking inside, not just outside, their organization for security threats. Internal threats – although oftentimes inadvertent — will continue to grow.

2011 will be the year that organizations proactively take steps to design and build applications, services and systems with security built in, not bolted on. Bolting security on as an afterthought will no longer be an option and will only result in higher risks and costs that businesses cannot afford. As the world becomes more interconnected, instrumented and intelligent, customers will take increasingly proactive steps to secure their infrastructure from the earliest stages possible.