Cybersecurity dominated the news in 2017 and continues to do so in the first quarter of 2018. This is the new normal.

In amongst the doom and gloom however, our analysts found reason to be positive about the future.

Every few weeks there are headlines about viral ransomware, global destructive wipers posing as ransomware, leaks of spy tools from U.S. intelligence agencies and breaches at major companies. And while we are early in 2018, we’re crossing our fingers and hoping that the outlook is more positive.

What does the rest of 2018 hold in store for the defenders? Unfortunately, more of the same security drama, according to Fortress and Cybereason’s researchers and analysts. Specifically, they identified the following as some of the bigger security trends this year:

• Fileless malware attacks become ubiquitous
• Destructive attacks continue
• The line blurs between APT Actors and Cybercriminals
• Supply chain attacks increase and remain underreported

Defenders will always face challenges as we attempt to protect our organisations, and no one likes reports that are all doom and gloom. And the more our researchers and analysts talked about what to expect in the rest of 2018, the more there was a cause to believe that the situation could actually improve for the good guys and gals next year.

There was a bit of optimism peppered among their talk of ransomware, wipers, APTs (advanced persistent threats) and other security nasties. Organisations, they said, are finally understanding that cybersecurity really matters and encompasses more than buying antivirus software or setting up firewalls. The entire company needs to toe the line and adopt a security mindset. And this leads to the final prediction for 2018:

• 2018 is The Year of the Defender