As we mark the end of cybersecurity awareness month, let's take a look at some of the cybersecurity trends we will see on the rise in 2024:

1. AI and Machine Learning in Security: The use of AI and machine learning for both defensive and offensive cybersecurity measures is likely to continue to evolve. AI-driven attacks and defenses will likely become more sophisticated.

2. Zero Trust Architecture: The adoption of a zero-trust security model is expected to increase, where no entity, internal or external, is trusted by default. This concept of continuously authenticating adds a thicker layer of security.

Privileged Access Management (PAM) and Identity Access Management (IAM) are two related but distinct concepts in the world of cybersecurity. While they both deal with regulating access to resources, they have inherently different objectives.

Let's look at both in more detail:

Identity Access Management (IAM): IAM follows the principle of least privilege allowing the management of staff identities so that only authorized personnel can access and update files that are meant for them based on their roles and responsibilities. This type of access control involves conditional access security at the system, user, and directory level with insights into access policies, centralized identities, and more. It deals with the entire lifecycle of user identities, including user provisioning, authentication, authorization, and user deprovisioning.

As cybersecurity prevention tactics continue to evolve and adapt to current trends, we've seen new terms thrown into the mix in conversation such as Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Extended Detection and Response (XDR). In IBM's 2022 Cost of a Data Breach Report, analysis on XDR trends were covered for the first time, highlighting the trend towards modernized cyber security solutions. It noted that out of all the organizations that were interviewed as part of the developmental phase of the report, 44% said they were actively using XDR technology and that they were able to contain a breach almost an entire month quicker than if they had not implemented XDR.

So, while we know that EDR and XDR are both methodologies that help combat cyber threats at an organizational level, there are some key differences between the two: