Security Predictions 2012 - The Crystal Balls Come Out

Leading – edge. Intuitive – interface. Plug – and play. Thought – leadership. It’s that time of the year. The quiet period between RSA/SC Magazine Awards US and Interop – Las Vegas/SC Magazine Awards UK, when you’ll often find internet security vendors look at their crystal balls and make their threat predictions for 2012. M86 Security has just released their nine page Security Predictions 2012. Definitely worth saving along with other security vendor predictions for 2012. Save them in a folder, and then peruse at the end of the year. Alternatively, place bets with your IT and security buds as to which vendor will be the most accurate in 2012. These prediction pieces and surveys help the vendors to demonstrate thought leadership in the security space. Some UK sites are irreverent when the survey pieces come out. Not mentioning by name, but think vulture head.

Below are links to some other security predictions for 2012 from SANS, Security Week, WatchGuard, Websense, McAfee, Trend Micro, and Sophos.

M86 Security predictions for 2012 are:

• Targeted Attacks Grow More Damaging and Complex
• Illicit Social Media Scams Escalate
• Mobile Malware Menaces Users and Organizations
• Third-party Software Exploits Gain Traction
• Exploit Kits and Malware Reuse Proliferate
• Compromised Websites Serving Malicious Content Accelerates
• Botnet Disruption Attempts Short-lived
• Spam Rebounds to Distribute Damaging Malware
• Major Sporting Events Draw Major Cyber Attacks
• Attacks on Cloud Services Inevitable

http://docs.media.bitpipe.com/io_10x/io_103522/item_503511/m86_security_labs_predictions_2012.pdf

http://www.sans.edu/research/security-laboratory/article/security-predict2011

http://www.securityweek.com/securityweeks-2012-it-security-predictions

http://www.watchguard.com/predictions/

http://www.websense.com/assets/reports/2012-Predictions-WS-Security-Labs.pdf

http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/reports/rp-threat-predictions-2012.pdf

http://www.trendmicro.co.uk/media/misc/trend-micro-2012-security-predictions-en.pdf

http://www.sophos.com/medialibrary/PDFs/other/SophosSecurityThreatReport2012.pdf

Light reading for now and the end of the year. As an aside The SC Magazine Awards UK will be on April 24. Finalists are at

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/02/2012-shortlist-sc-magazine-2012-awards.html

Trustwave to Acquire M86 Security

Trustwave, a Chicago cloud based, provider of on-demand data security and payment card industry compliance management solutions, has come to an agreement to acquire M86 Security. M86 Security, based in Irvine, CA, is a combination of what were four separate companies several years ago. They may still be better known for some of their parts, Marshal, Avinti, 8e6, and Finjan than they are for the M86 Security name.

M86 Security is one of two Visionaries in the 2011 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Secure Web Gateways, competing against leaders Cisco, Blue Coat Systems (taken private by Thoma Bravo in February), Websense, McAfee, and Zscaler. They offer solutions in Web Security, email security, and have an SMB Security Suite. M86 does not offer the real time defense solution and web application controls that some of their competitors provide. However, they were the first company to deliver a hybrid cloud Web security service. M86 Security’s email security solution is one of the Visionaries in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Secure Email Gateways.

This is a nice acquisition for Trustwave. They gain 26,000 customers. It broadens their already extensive security portfolio. It gives them great brand recognition and entrees in the Secure Web Gateway and Secure email Gateway marketplace. The nice thing about the M86 Secure Web Gateway solution is that it can be deployed as a traditional appliance, virtual appliance, or a hybrid cloud option. Of course, companies like Zscaler, would beg to differ, stating that a cloud solution is the only way to go. Nonetheless, hybrid solutions are nice for companies considering the cloud without having to drink the cloud kool-aid (bit of a mixed metaphor).

M86 Security – Irvine, CA. Trustwave - Chicago. I see the Irvine office remaining.

To learn more about the respective companies - http://www.trustwave.com and http://m86security.com