The cryptocurrency industry is no longer just a niche market; it’s a burgeoning global financial force, poised to reach a staggering USD 11.7 billion by 2030. Fuelled by rapid technological advancements, evolving regulatory landscapes, and increased mainstream adoption, the sector is facing both unprecedented challenges and exciting opportunities. As blockchain and digital currencies continue to disrupt traditional finance, understanding the key trends driving these changes is essential for anyone navigating the crypto ecosystem.
#1 AI’s Game-Changing Impact on Crypto Exchanges
AI is revolutionising the way crypto exchanges operate – from enhanced efficiency and security to a more personalised user experience.
One of the most significant contributions of AI is the use of automated trading bots. These bots can analyse vast amounts of market data, predict price movements, and execute trades with precision, often outperforming human traders. By operating 24/7 and eliminating emotional biases, AI-powered bots offer a significant advantage in the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency trading.
AI also plays a crucial role in improving security on crypto exchanges. By using machine learning algorithms to monitor and analyse transaction patterns, AI can identify and mitigate the risks of hacks and fraud, which have plagued the cryptocurrency space for years. For example, in 2023 alone, crypto scams led to losses of over USD 5.6 billion in the US.
AI personalises the user experience by offering tailored recommendations based on individual trading behaviour. Additionally, AI performs market sentiment analysis by processing unstructured data from social media, news outlets, and other online platforms, providing valuable insights into market trends. AI also plays a crucial role in improving security on crypto exchanges.
#2 Global Cryptocurrency Regulations: A Maturing Landscape
Cryptocurrency regulations are evolving rapidly around the world as governments strive to manage risks and protect consumers. The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation in the EU is a significant milestone, requiring licensing for all crypto firms operating within the bloc and mandating stringent consumer protection measures, including capital requirements for stablecoins.
In the US, efforts like the Financial Innovation and Technology (FIT) for the 21st Century Act and the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act are expanding oversight of the industry and clarifying the roles of different regulatory bodies. Similar regulatory movements are underway across Asia. Japan has recognised crypto as legal property, and South Korea passed the Virtual Asset Users Protection Act to increase transparency. However, countries like China and India maintain restrictive approaches, with bans on trading and mining.
Brazil’s 2023 Cryptoassets Act demonstrates the global trend towards more robust regulation, aiming to prevent fraud in the crypto sector.
#3 Mergers and Acquisitions: A Strategic Play in the Crypto Space
As traditional financial institutions race to embrace the digital asset revolution, mergers and acquisitions are becoming a strategic tool to gain a foothold in the cryptocurrency market. By acquiring crypto companies with real-world applications and robust infrastructure, these institutions aim to expand their digital asset capabilities and stay ahead of the curve.
Examples like Ripple’s acquisition of Metaco and Coinbase’s purchase of One River Digital highlight the growing interest in integrating traditional financial services with blockchain technology. These M&A deals not only enhance service offerings but also facilitate entry into new markets and the development of innovative solutions.
Looking ahead, we can expect to see even larger financial institutions playing a more active role in crypto mergers and acquisitions. As the demand for scalable, compliant blockchain solutions continues to grow, strategic partnerships and acquisitions will become increasingly important in paving the way for broader adoption of digital assets.
#4 CBDCs and Stablecoins: A New Era in Digital Finance
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) are gaining significant traction, with 86% of central banks actively exploring their potential. Major economies like the UK, EU, and US are in various stages of CBDC research and development, carefully considering privacy concerns, financial stability, and the impact on commercial banks. Smaller nations like the Bahamas, Nigeria, and Jamaica have taken the lead, launching CBDCs to serve as digital alternatives to traditional fiat currencies.
In the private sector, stablecoins have experienced substantial adoption. Major financial institutions and payment providers are integrating stablecoins like USDC and Tether (USDT) into their services, processing billions in daily transaction volume. This growth has prompted regulators worldwide to develop comprehensive frameworks, such as the EU’s MiCA regulation and similar efforts in the UK and US. These regulatory initiatives aim to provide clear guidelines while fostering innovation.
As traditional financial institutions explore stablecoin integration for both retail and wholesale applications, the future of digital finance looks increasingly promising.
#5 The Focus on User Experience and Security
As the crypto landscape continues to evolve, the focus on user experience and security has never been more critical. Cyberattacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated, targeting crypto exchanges and DeFi platforms alike. Historically, the industry has been developer-centric, with little attention paid to creating intuitive platforms for everyday users. However, as more consumers embrace blockchain-based financial services, there is a growing demand for seamless, user-friendly interfaces.
Security is another major concern. High-profile hacks and fraud have tarnished the reputation of the crypto industry, leading to skepticism among users and regulators. DeFi platforms, in particular, have been frequent targets due to vulnerabilities in smart contracts. To foster widespread trust and adoption, the industry must prioritise integrating security features by design, such as blockchain analytics for detecting fraudulent activities and advanced risk management tools.
Emerging technologies like social recovery wallets, which help users regain access to lost funds, and improvements in blockchain scalability and efficiency, will be instrumental in attracting more mainstream users.
Crypto’s Future: A Balancing Act
The future of the crypto industry hinges on its ability to strike a delicate balance between innovation, regulation, and security. As digital assets become more deeply integrated into mainstream finance, we can expect to see a surge in tokenised real-world assets, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies.
Collaboration between regulators, financial institutions, and tech innovators will be essential in shaping a secure and inclusive ecosystem. Ultimately, the success of crypto will depend on its ability to build trust while delivering the efficiency and transparency that define a rapidly evolving digital economy.
Technology is reshaping the Public Sector worldwide, optimising operations, improving citizen services, and fostering data-driven decision-making. Government agencies are also embracing innovation for effective governance in this digital era.
Public sector organisations worldwide recognise the need for swift and agile interventions. With citizen expectations resembling those of commercial customers, public sector organisations face mounting pressure to break down the barriers to provide seamless service experiences.
Read on to find out how public sector organisations in countries such as Australia, Vietnam, the Philippines, South Korea, and Singapore are innovating to stay ahead of the curve; and what Ecosystm VP Consulting, Peter Carr sees as the Future of Public Sector.
Click here to Download ‘The Future of the Public Sector’ as a PDF
What used to be commonly known by names such as computer security or IT security is now most commonly referred to as cybersecurity. The techniques of securing computers, applications, networks, programs and data have evolved and so has the terminology. The change in the jargon reflects the progression from discrete to interconnected devices and networks. It is only when the computers and devices became connected with each other – and with the Internet – that the issues and attempts of unauthorised access became prominent.
Simply put, cybersecurity is the protection of computer systems from cyber-attacks. This is made possible with multiple layers of security across the system, individual devices, enterprises and even nations against unauthorised access and exploitation.
Cybersecurity is a constant battle
Preventing cyberattacks is a challenging task for security professionals and to accomplish that, cybersecurity experts should stay ahead of cyber attackers and cybercriminals. A range of effective methods and technologies have been devised to strengthen cybersecurity. One important aspect of cybersecurity is identity and access management (IDAM). IDAM allows various defined levels of access on the basis of individual roles, administrator levels and even at a system level. The common IDAM methods include single sign-on systems, multi-factor authentication, privileged access management (PAM), biometrics, voice or facial recognition, and other distinctive physical attributes to verify and identify individuals. IDAM procedures are being implemented at all levels of businesses, enterprises and even for national-level security with the growth of eGovernment systems.
Another common security measure is Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) software and services. The term combines security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM) and is provided by vendors as software or appliance. SIEM works by collecting log data and delivering real-time insights and generates security alerts using a range of techniques. SIEM is used by enterprises where compliance to a set, or sets, of rules is a strong factor. In addition, it also prevents interferences from individual attackers, organised crime groups, or other actors.
SIEM systems comprise three major components:
- Data collection. SIEM system collects logs and data from system activity, access, firewalls, application monitors, operating system layers and network traffic and generates an event every time activity happens.
- Data analysis. The SIEM system is tasked with correlating and analysing data in a format. The analysis is performed in various ways: log management and retention, event correlation, user activity monitoring, and predictive and forensic analysis.
- Another major step is reporting in the form of real-time alerts, dashboards, email and SMS notifications of events, analytical reporting, auditing and governance, and compliance.
The global Ecosystm Cybersecurity Study covers various cybersecurity solutions such as Crisis Communication solutions; Security Operations & Incident Response, IDAM and more. The study shows that organisations are primarily focusing more on Application, Data and Network level security, whereas, the other cybersecurity fields such as Crisis communication, Fraud transaction, IDAM, Threat Analysis and Reporting are looked down.
National Cybersecurity and Safety
Countries across the globe are accelerating their cybersecurity efforts to address risks, enhance public safety, protect communications, safeguard mission-critical applications and prevent threats. Cybersecurity is important to governments, where it is increasingly seen as an area of international conflict. Most countries have now setup their dedicated national cybersecurity centres, drawing on the capabilities of private industry, government and academic specialists in the area.
As cybersecurity threats have proliferated and computer technology has advanced, government data security compliance has become increasingly complex. The governments of various nations have set up compliances with a wave of new privacy regulations.
Security is an ongoing and constant effort which should be adopted at an individual, business, organisation, enterprise and national level. To strengthen cybersecurity there are many excellent solutions, a range of comprehensive suites and products. However, malicious parties and criminals are constantly employing new techniques and technologies. It is a new arms race, and there is no one size fits all solution.
AT&T became the first North American operator to join the ranks of the Global Telco Security Alliance formed by Singtel, Etisalat, Softbank, and Telefónica. The alliance which was formed last year in April 2018 in a pact to amalgamate the capabilities of telecommunications operators on security aspects and fight collectively against cyber attacks.
AT&T joined as an equal member with other founding members of the group. Over the past few years, AT&T has been building its cybersecurity capabilities and has recently acquired AlienVault– a commercial and open source developer – to offer a platform that integrates and automates point security products to manage cyber attacks. AlienVault has been rebranded as AT&T Cybersecurity, and includes consulting and managed security services. Similarly, at the end of 2018, Singtel revealed the brand ‘Trustwave’ that combines the capabilities of partners such as Optus and NCS, to provide a comprehensive security suite and services to help organisations fight cybercrime.
With the rising risks of cyber-attacks, these initiatives are providing a synergistic front and helping organisations to analyse and act faster against cyber threats. The alliance plans to expand its global footprint and span across APAC, Europe, MEA and America.
Speaking about the alliance, Alex Woerndle, Principal Analyst Cybersecurity, Ecosystm says that, “Similar collaborations exists within other industries already – most commonly they use regular information-sharing sessions with the collective security teams to discuss what each is experiencing, what strategies and tactics have worked or failed, and provide details on the type and nature of attacks. The telcos – at a minimum – should be collaborating at that level. But given the global nature of this alliance, they will need to consider how they can aggregate threat information and share it in a more agile way on a day to day, hour to hour and minute to minute basis.”
The alliance accounts for a significant percentage of the overall traffic and is a tangible example of companies taking steps to fight cyber attacks. “As the threat landscape continues to expand there is an opportunity to broaden the intelligence – sharing what they collectively gather and analyse, to strengthen the defences of the broader market not just in their local geographies, and to impact globally”, says Woerndle. “Think of the immense opportunities to share intelligence gathered collectively by all the major telcos, to proactively prevent attacks on their clients – from other enterprises down to small/medium businesses and consumers. Law enforcement could benefit from the global telco collaboration, also”
The cyber world is ever growing and in this vast world, no business is 100% safe & insured against cyber attacks. With so many threats out there incurred every minute, it is hard to detect each one and prevent them all. In this world of disruptive technology if organisations want to remain competitive, keeping their IT infrastructure security up-to-date is a must.
The Government, cybersecurity experts & other groups are taking various initiatives to spread awareness on cyber attacks but despite these attempts, organisations fail to take their cybersecurity seriously, we may say this is due to lack of awareness, increase in expense or companies simply not wanting to take the pains to prevent breaches.
“When things are going well, it is hard to sell the message of security to stakeholders and get support from across the business. When things are not going so well (e.g. you’ve had a breach), it means high pressure and a lot of focus on your performance” says Alex Woerndle, Principal Analyst Cybersecurity, Ecosystm.
Cyber attacks happen without notice. While there are many cyber experts present to help and provide consultation to the organisations, knowing beforehand about the attacks and strengthening your cybersecurity will safeguard you against serious ramifications.
Let’s Understand – What is a Cyber Attack?
A cyber attack is a deliberate attempt by an individual or a community working together to tap into an existing or a newly discovered vulnerability in the system, network, firmware or software resulting in complete control or gaining information from the victim’s system. While measuring the ill-effects of a cyber attack, we can say that with access to critical data one can exploit sensitive information, identity and may cause serious damage to an organisation or personal identity. Sometimes, a cyber attack is also referred to as computer network exploitation (CNE) or a computer network attack (CNA).
The other common terms used in association with a cyber attack are threat, vulnerability, and risk. Often these terms are mingled together in our day-to-day usage, but they all mean something different. Let’s try to uncover the basic difference between a threat, a vulnerability, and a risk.
A threat can be explained as an activity to exploit a weakness in a system, to cause harm or reveal the underlying assets. It always involves a person responsible for performing threat actions to impact the system’s security known as a threat actor.
A vulnerability is an unknown system flaw or a known weakness that could potentially be exploited by a person also known as a hacker. In other words, it can be known or unknown issues within a system or its software that can be exploited by hackers.
Together, when a threat acts and exploits a vulnerability, this may result in the development of a situation known as a risk. A risk could lead to potential loss or damage to a business.
Understanding threats, vulnerabilities, risks and other components will help you to act against cyber attacks but this may raise another question on why someone would try to harm your business.
So Why do Cyber Attacks Happen?
The people behind a cyber attack could be hackers, a team or a dark web organisation who work with an ulterior motive to commit a digital crime or to gain access to one’s system through a cyber attack. Collectively we may refer to them as cyber criminals. Cyber criminals try to identify vulnerability to crackdown a system.Below are some of the common reasons why a cyber attack happens.
Financial Gain
This is one of the most well-known types of cyber crime. The motive of cyber criminals here is to get easy access to money and the ways they make this happen is through frauds, demands, data breaches or direct attacks. What attackers try to steal are the business’ financial details or sensitive data/intellectual property, customer financial data or databases, staff or client credentials. By gaining access to these, the attackers get in a position to easily access a secured system and exploit it for their financial gains.
Hacktivism – Political or Social
Hacktivism is an activity involving anonymous organisations breaking into an organisation’s IT infrastructure for political or social reasons. Hacktivists mount cyber attacks to access information that can damage the intended target or perform activities to hurt or lower the reputation of certain bodies. Government and political bodies are often the targets of hacktivism.
Intellectual Challenge
Cyber world experts are sometimes challenged by the thrill of hacking or may develop a personality living in a virtual world pushing them to hack into a network with an intention of identifying system vulnerabilities. Generally, hackers are referred to as people with bad motives but hackers are not necessarily criminals as some of them help organisations to test systems, recognise backdoors, loopholes or vulnerabilities in a system which is termed as ‘white hat’ hacking. Knowing the vulnerabilities in the existing IT infrastructure and services may protect organisations from some serious future consequences.
Espionage
Stealing classified information, sensitive data or intellectual property from a government entity or a competitive organisation is a common form of espionage attack. The examples of an espionage attack could be stealing trade and military secrets or technologies or potential system flaws which may pose an influential threat to a nation.
Organised Cyber Crime
Digital technology has empowered individuals with some serious fire-power. IMs and chat technology have made it easy for individuals to form teams or an organisation to commit crimes on the web. Sometimes several groups form communities to commit a serious cyber crime – planned, coordinated and conducted together at a macro level.
Disruption
Aiming to disrupt business, or the operations of critical infrastructure, can be undertaken just to demonstrate security weaknesses, the hacker’s general disapproval for the business, or even to cause extensive operational, financial and physical damage to their target.
The Vulnerabilities that a Business can Experience
Data breaches occur every minute and unknown threats and vulnerabilities always pose a risk for a business. To stay protected, it is always better to know and understand the types of threats or vulnerabilities that a business can experience rather than later raising questions on how the attackers got in.
- Malware . A malware is a type of cyber attack where malicious software is installed on the victim’s systems through executable files usually without the user’s knowledge. Malware includes malicious software, including spyware, ransomware, viruses, and worms. After installation, a malware can keep track of the user’s activity or can trigger codes resulting into access to sensitive information, login details, credit cards or intellectual properties by the hacker.
- Phishing. Phishing refers to spoofing or deceptive communications activities performed by the attackers that appear to originate from a credible source such as emails, messages, legitimate websites that are disguised. Through phishing, attackers try to fetch sensitive information, user details, credit card numbers or make fraudulent attempts.
- Man-in-the-middle attack. These attacks happen with relaying or altering the communication channels. This can be communication between organisations and cloud server or over unsecured networks.
- DoS/DDoS. A DoS/DDoS attack aims at flooding the target website with overwhelming traffic to exhaust resources and bandwidth of the system. These are not to bring down a website but to breach a security perimeter and smoke out the online systems. This can reduce a user base or may bring down the entire network.
- SQL Injection. This is injecting a nefarious code or statements into SQL queries or a database server to extract information from the database or to take a data dump of the complete database.
- Zero-day exploit. Zero-day is a software security flaw which is known to the software developers. Attackers try to exploit a vulnerability before a patch or solution is implemented to capture the system with known weaknesses.
- Cross Site Scripting. XSS attacks occur when a web app sends malicious code in the form of a side script to another user thus bypassing access controls of the site to same as the origin.
- Business Email compromise. This is an attack to spoof business emails and gain illegal access to company accounts and ids to defraud the company or its employees.
According to Woerndle, “Nowadays, most of the reported attacks appear to be email-focused either with the intention to encrypt the infected systems to demand payment of a ransom for the keys (i.e. ransomware), to steal credentials (subsequently used for further attacks on other systems and applications) or to steal information that can be sold for profit on the black markets. “
Some of the World’s Largest Data Breaches
Cyber attacks have become a repeated theme every year and we hear quite often about the data breaches. Here’s a visualisation of some of the world’s largest data breaches that have occurred in the past few years.
Source: Informationisbeautiful-worlds biggest data breaches hacks
How to Prevent Cyber Attacks?
To minimise cyber attacks, businesses can put some counter-measures in place. It is a smart move to be prepared for serious circumstances and act reactively with security measures.
Secure assets. It is always considered a security best practice to keep your systems and infrastructure updated with latest security patches and updates which are released from vendors or manufacturers on a regular basis.
Conduct threat assessment. Vulnerabilities can arise within your own system or potentially from other sources which are not directly under your control, but they can be identified if you are aware. Perform regular due diligence of your system or network security.
Stay informed on threats. News articles, software companies, cyber security organisations often release information on threats and vulnerabilities that can help you stay informed and act against threats.
Formulate steps to avoid threats. Training and regular information to organisations and employees can prevent many attacks from happening. If your users or employees are aware and informed they can escape the threats. Keep strong passwords, encrypt sensitive information, safeguard accounts, use firewalls to prevent attacks.
Plan an incident response. Create plans and approaches to react against a cyber attack to manage and limit the damage. Always keep your systems backed up online/offline and prepare your IT team to deal with it. You may also take advice or may hire experts to strengthen your infrastructure security.
It is rightly believed that prevention is better than cure. Speaking on the subject, Alex Woerndle, conveys that “the fundamentals are always the most critical starting points – focus on your system and application hardening and patching processes, deploy and actively maintain endpoint protections (e.g. anti-virus), restrict the permissions users have on their devices and invest in regular training and awareness for all staff. Beyond that, ensure all systems are backed up regularly, and deploy (and encourage all users to apply in their everyday lives) multi-factor authentication wherever possible.”
Considering the recent information security breaches, governments around the world are actively forming committees and taking measures to fight against cyber attacks. The governments of various nations have published some guidelines and measures to prevent cyber attacks.
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework, US, provides a policy framework of computer security guidance for organisations to assess and improve their ability to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber-attacks. The framework has been translated into many languages and is used by various governments and organisations across the world.
The Australian Government (via Australian Signals Directorate – part of Defence) has published some very good guidelines – called the ‘Essential 8’ and ‘Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents’. The Essential 8 are a very user-friendly guide for businesses and provide protection against 80% of the most common cyber attacks
The UK Government has also come out with very useful information to help organisations.
Recently, Singapore opened a new cybersecurity school and the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), is planning to hire security experts for their cyber defense strategy.
Cybersecurity is a challenging area and is a very broad discipline that requires skills across technology, forensics, business management, risk and compliance, education, communication, technical support, and others.
Negligence can impair reputation and lead to commercial losses but by understanding the security aspects, one can become aware of the potential threat and be in a better position to counteract it, or even preempt it.
This is just a glimpse to give you some insights into areas of cybersecurity and what goes under the surface. For specific details, you may get in touch with us or speak with a cybersecurity expert.
