Time Capsule: Security Leaders Make 20 Predictions for the Next 10 Years

There is no changing these cybersecurity and privacy predictions which forecast changes in the next 10 years.

The guesses are recorded, sealed inside a time capsule, and buried in the ground somewhere near Portland, Oregon.

The capsule spent 2018 visiting all 15 of the Secure World regional cybersecurity conferences, and in each city, security leaders made their best predictions.

20 privacy and security predictions for the next 10 years

There were too many predictions to publish, but here are the top 20 picked by our SecureWorld team.

We decided not to list any names (to protect the embarrassed if predictions fail!), but we know who made them. Here are the predictions:

1. At least one large Cloud outage of a huge service that shakes trust in the Cloud.

2.  Cyber issues post Cyber War I: Congress involved with mandating security guidelines for all business with auditing by a government agency.

3. Managing multiple digital personae collapses with increasing identity theft—2023 or sooner

4.  Manipulation/hacking into bionic organs and increased security needed for prevention of such malicious acts.

5.  AI / Machine Learning will automate many IT/Security controls, allowing focus by exception. Hackers will grow all the more complex to counter automation.

6.  Less reliance on tech; it’s reached a saturation point and people might reject it.

7. Robot overlords!

8. Skynet will become a reality.

9. No passwords. Biometric authentication shift. Mandatory multi-factor and biometric authentication.
10. Total chaos.

11. A huge new industry in personal privacy protection for consumers, their homes, their IoT.

12. AI will steal something, and AI will start a war.

13. AI using social engineering. Cyber warfare becoming a huge issue.

14. With the advances in AI, I predict hybrid humans—part human, part machine.

15. There will no longer be anything not known about us personally, as our online profiles will be surprisingly accurate.

16. Off the grid companies specializing in low-tech solutions to keep privacy for those who want it.

17. RFID chips (implanted at birth) will validate our voting, financial transactions, and daily personal verification/ID tasks.

18. Breaking of WPA2 will lead to the rise of new tech. But Lord help us when it happens.

19. I see a huge dependency on AI, but then huge mistakes will lead us to rethink how much independence can machines have without compromising human lives.

20. Weaponized memes.

We hope memes never become weaponized—although those infected with malware already are, in some sense.

And now if you'll permit us, our team would like to make a prediction we know will come true: There will be fantastic InfoSec collaboration in 2019 at your regional SecureWorld gathering!

This includes two new communities: SecureWorld Toronto in April 2019, and SecureWorld New York in October 2019.

Join your privacy and security peers; see the event schedule here.