It’s that time of year when we reflect on the lessons learned in 2022 and make predictions for what’s ahead in 2023. We’ll do a temperature check midyear to see how close Quantum Xchange’s Chief Strategy Officer Vince Berk gets with his top three predictions for 2023. Enjoy!
Prediction #1 – Data as a Corporate Liability
The cloud has been transformative both in the way we use and store data. Due to its affordability, low maintenance and ease of use, organizations tend to hoard data in the cloud. While a lot of this information may not have immediate value, the idea that data mining and machine learning techniques may one day exploit great value from this data has kept organizations from wiping it off their servers. Now, organizations must ensure this data is protected, adhere to global privacy rules and regulations, and is not lost or compromised.
The recent Roomba data breach shows that tightly controlled private data can be leaked. The story is all too familiar. What started with good intentions — make use of human workers to train the AI — ended with private images being leaked from a third-party vendor. Meanwhile, the rise of ransomware puts extra pressure on victims when a breach occurs.
In 2023 boards and executives will be forced to see data as a liability to the good name of the enterprise and will start to value policies of measured data destruction over relentless data hoarding.
Prediction #2 – BYOP (Bring Your Own Privacy)
As users have increasingly reaped the benefits of the cloud, they have also seen that any personal data stored out of their own control can be subject to disclosure. In many instances, consumers are quick to give up their privacy for the ease and convenience of cloud-based services (e.g., Gmail, Facebook, Twitter).
In the early days of the cloud, data protection clauses and privacy statements could be trusted. A decade later, we see how best intentions don’t always work out the way the caretaker had thought.
In today’s climate where most SaaS and technology companies are required to tighten the belt and reduce costs, it is unclear if the same level of diligence is afforded to the data as it once was. Employees skilled and tasked with data privacy may have moved on taking with them institutional knowledge that is forever lost. Backups in cloud accounts might get exposed as repositories of data slip from institutional memory.
Mergers and acquisitions can wreak havoc on your data. Although the caretaker of your data may have had the best intentions for your privacy, once they are acquired by a third party, perhaps in a country where data privacy is not considered as important, there is no telling what will happen. A whole new set of rules might apply. It is therefore becoming the responsibility of the individual to carefully curate and care for what data they entrust vendors with, and carefully manage where that data resides and how it is used.
In 2023, the U.S. consumer will take a cue from the European citizenry and realize it is their responsibility, not the responsibility of the vendor, to keep their private data safe no longer trusting SaaS providers with private details.
Prediction #3 – PQC Failings Continue
Through the NIST standardization efforts, a variety of quantum-safe cryptographic algorithms have been created that can run on conventional hardware. These algorithms offer the benefit of being a “drop-in” replacement for Diffie-Hellman and RSA allowing organizations to continue to operate business-as-usual while being quantum ready. Unfortunately, many of these algorithms have been defeated. Some in as little as two days after being named a standard finalist by NIST.
This trend will continue in 2023. As more algorithms appear on the stage, additional algorithms will be weakened or defeated. Similarly, implementation bugs and other cryptographic shortcomings will drive uncertainty and mistrust of new algorithms. Organizations will fear a panicked patch and update cycle that touches their entire infrastructure and every endpoint, as each new defeat is announced.
In 2023 organizations will seek stability and the ability to easily manage this algorithmic churn, so they can confidently set policy around crypto agility and trust their cryptographic infrastructure. We know of a solution that will help — Phio TX.
