A new buzzword is born (or will be)

Acronyms and buzzwords litter the technology arena, particularly in correlation with enterprise risks. For example, APT – or advanced persistent threats, caused many to quiver with fear resulting in numerous consultancy projects and clueless organisations investing heavily in a myriad of defences. In the last few years, the budgets allocated to thwart APT have dwindled. What’s needed is a new scary acronym for specialists to band about – how about NBM’s (no boundary menaces) or perhaps AEK’s (axis of evil kamikazes). While you may laugh, I’d bet at this very moment a marketing genius somewhere is busily working his way through the thesaurus to come up with the NBT (next big threat).

Each year predictions are made, and warnings issued, in preparation for another twelve months. Yet, year after year, we still find ourselves surprised when attacked and more unprepared than we thought we were. We’ve all learnt to be streetwise to keep ourselves safe in the real world, yet we leave that astuteness behind when interacting virtually. In 2013 I urge everyone to think before they click - my rule of thumb for even the most basic users - if you don’t trust it, don’t do it.


Oh, and if you really want a set of predictions that will help you, look at some 10 year old “biggest real threat wrap-up” and put the recommendations into play.