Based upon the technological, cultural and economic shifts and advances in the next decade we
begin to see an evolving threat landscape emerging. This new reality of cyber and data security
can be seen as a widening attack plain. The attack surface in the future broadens out, including
more people, increasing targets, and changing the very nature of security and threat.
The cyber threats over the last decade have mainly been isolated to “data only” threats,
espionage, leaks and hacks. In recent years, the nature of these attacks have expanded to
include micro-targeting, cyber-physical and cyber-kinetic attacks. In the next decade we will
see a continuing widening of the attack plain.
As we look at the future of cyber threats, we must look beyond the current digital attack
surface and see a plain that is far wider and exposed. The nature of hacking and cyber itself will
become another tool or weapon that can be used alone or with more frequency as a blended
attack. These blended attacks provide the most potential for devastating offense and increased
complexity for the defense