TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Palo Alto Networks, a multinational cybersecurity company headquartered in California, released this week their annual predictions on the state of cybersecurity for the coming year.

On Thursday (Dec. 1), at Taiwan Cyberweek 2023, a cybersecurity forum in Taipei, Taiwan News spoke with Simon Green, the President of Palo Alto Networks for Japan and the Asia Pacific Region (JAPAC), about these predictions and recent trends in the cybersecurity industry.

Green explained that cybersecurity is a very dynamic field to be working in as the world is experiencing an unprecedented digital transformation. “There’s been more change in the past two years, over the course of the pandemic, than there was in the past decade,” said Green.

Even before 2019, the digital marketplace and digital services were already developing at a rapid pace. However, the COVID-19 pandemic served as a massive accelerator for the trends that are now driving the industry, Green explained.

As more businesses began to rely on online networks to remain productive and profitable over the past two years, the amount of data and data usage has skyrocketed. Along with the ever-increasing connectivity and data creation, the potential risks of cyberattacks have also increased.

This is why services like Palo Alto Networks, which strives to help businesses organize and secure data proliferation, are so important, explained Green. “While potential bad actors only need to get lucky once, online companies have to be sure their networks are secure 100% of the time.”

Speaking on the current state of cybersecurity, Green said there are three “mega trends” that are really reshaping things. They are: cloud adoption, work from home and hybrid work models, and artificial intelligence. All three factors have forced companies to reconsider how their data is stored, secured, and organized.

Pandemic impact on cybersecurity

Green explained that as more companies began adapting to people accessing internal networks from outside of the office, exchanges of data became necessarily more dispersed. This in turn pushed entire industries towards cloud adoption. Before 2019, a lot of companies were only experimenting with cloud storage systems, but the pandemic forced them to rework their entire approach to data collection and storage.

As companies began to recognize the necessity of adopting cloud service and storage capabilities, they were also faced with an increase in the number of people accessing company networks from outside of the office. All of this became a major burden for IT departments.

Artificial intelligence was the key tool that helped to ease that burden. Palo Alto Networks offers sophisticated AI programs to its customers that help manage “autonomous data centers,” which can assist in sorting through the exponential growth in online data. “In the past, a lot of data storage tools were very good at ingesting data, but were not very good at digesting the data,” said Green.

Palo Alto Networks believes that the “best of breed” in data security operations will increasingly turn towards AI-run autonomous data centers. “As far as threat assessment, Palo Alto Networks employs a threat Intel cloud which reads telemetry from networks across the world to identify possible risks,” said Green.

Simon Green speaking at Taiwan Cyberweek 2023, Dec. 1. (Palo Alto Networks photo)

Palo Alto Networks predictions for 2023

Beyond simply developing tools for clients to keep their data secure, the company also wants to share its expertise with the wider public. The company maintains a research office called Unit 42, which provides an annual cyber threat assessment report, advisory services, as well as regular updates on topical cyber threats risks via a subscription service.

In addition to providing industry insiders with regular “incident response reports” to keep them up to date on current risks, Unit 42 also works with national law enforcement agencies. Many personnel have backgrounds in military and intelligence and they apply their specialized knowledge to deal with tracking threats, and even engage in negotiations to reduce financial losses during active ransomware scenarios.

When asked about Palo Alto Networks' approach to data security, Green explained that companies need to begin embracing a “zero trust” mindset. “Zero trust is an approach to security of consistent verification of every person and device connected to a secure network,” Green said.

This contrasts with older models of business security, which may have just required swiping an ID card, or logging in once to a computer and saving one’s long-in info.

“When explaining zero-trust, I like to use the metaphor of going to an airport with your passport. A person’s credentials will be confirmed at check-in, screened before going through security, and scrutinized at customs. Then there is a final check at boarding, before someone is ever allowed to step foot on a plane.”

Green suggested that “Zero Ttrust” strategies and security operation centers (SOCs) managed by AI will both be crucial for mitigating risk as the world’s digital transformation continues apace. He also briefly discussed the company's cybersecurity predictions for 2023.

The five predictions are:

1. Accelerated 5G adoption will deepen vulnerabilities


2. Securing connected medical devices will be critical


3. Cloud supply chain attacks will disrupt businesses


4. Debate on data sovereignty will intensify


5. Metaverse will be the new playground for cyber criminals

Green emphasized that the nature of 5G technology allows for massive amounts of data to be dispersed over wide geographic areas. “This kind of dispersed high-speed, high-frequency network completely collapses traditional security barriers,” Green said, noting that this may present an extremely high-risk if networks managing crucial infrastructure are compromised.

Networks that might be high-value targets for cyber criminals include AI-managed ports and shipping systems, public transport systems, government threat alert systems, as well as mining and drilling operations. Likewise, as the number of companies adopting cloud services continues in 2023, it is very likely that some will be targeted for their vulnerabilities during this global digital transformation, Green explained.

Speaking about the JAPAC region, Green said that 90% of Palo Alto Networks’ clients experienced some kind of security breach in the past 12 months. About 40% of those attacks seriously impacted the company's finances.

In Taiwan, about US$2.5 million was spent by clients to resolve ransomware attacks, said Green. He also mentioned a recent study which found that Taiwan is ranked 19th for the most ransomware attacks in the world, and 5th in the JAPAC region.

“These numbers have a lot of company officers concerned. This kind of landscape is encouraging them to seek out the best of breed solutions to ensure they have the most secure end platform possible,” Green said.

Green noted that out of 2,300 guests at the cybersecurity forum in Taipei, about 30% of them represented company CEOs or COOs. “This indicates to me that Taiwan has a mature mentality towards cybersecurity, and I am thrilled to see such interest and so many companies looking to build partnerships in this area.”

While the current landscape of digital transformation presents a lot of areas for concern, Green is cautiously optimistic about the future of cybersecurity in the 21st century.

“In the past, when it came to IT and internal security, corporations were always very hesitant to collaborate with people outside of the company. However, that kind of approach just won’t work in the era of 5G and IoT,” said Green.

“Fortunately, as companies become more aware of the potential risks in this new digital era, we are seeing a much greater willingness for collaborative partnerships. When companies are on the same page, willing to work together and share expertise, then we are all much better positioned to ensure security and productivity moving forward.”