In 2015, hackers exposed 170 million personal records in theU.S., according to the Identify Theft Resource Center. The attackscost businesses worldwide more than $400 billion, British insurancecompany Lloyd's revealed.

So what's the data breach forecast for 2016? It's not lookinggood, according to cybersecurity experts.

“In today's environment of advanced and targeted threats, it isimperative to assume that data breaches will continue to happen into 2016 and beyond,”Scott Gordon, COO of the San Jose, Calif.-based FinalCode said.“Therefore, companies should proactively take steps to protectsensitive documents inside and outside their organizations.”

Paul Jespersen, vice president of emerging technologies at theClifton, N.J.-based Comodo, commented, “More than in almost anyother industry, bankingand financial services are exposed to a growing variety ofthreats, especially as customers demand more flexibility andmobile access. This will accelerate in 2016, and we can expect tosee more major breaches in banking and POS applications.”

Stu Sjouwerman, founder/CEO of the Clearwater, Fla.-basedKnowBe4, warned of one specific hacking method criminals are likelyto focus on.

“In 2016, you will see an integrity attack in the financialsector in which millions of dollars will be stolen by cyber thieveswho will modify selected data in the transaction stream, resultingin a significant redirection of payment to anonymized accounts,” hesaid. “How they will get in? Spear phishing.”

Data thieves will take advantage of weak passwords or otherholes found within critical or sensitive systems, another expertnoted.

“Hackers are specifically looking for personally identifiableinformation to steal, to ultimately sell on the black market,” DodiGlenn, vice president, cybersecurity at the Sioux City, Iowa-basedPC Pitstop, pointed out. “IT admins need to ensure they have strongpasswords, and are consistently monitoring the health of thenetwork for potential threats. They also need to ensure theirsystems are patched, and do not contain vulnerabilities.”

Jespersen said he expects to see a continued shift from simple,executable malware to increasingly faster introductions of new,creative and advanced persistent threats and exploits, includingsome that are extremely targeted.

Targeted distributed denial of service attacks may also arise,particularly when a company angers the public, Glenn warned.

“The loosely formed hacking group Anonymous has published toolsthat are designed to take down websites and servers by sendingbogus data to them,” he said.

Advanced endpoint solutions are becoming increasingly important,especially those that provide coordinated detection and analysis tohelp thwart evolving threats, experts advised.

Learn more about what cybersecurity experts foresee for 2016in the Jan. 13, 2016 print issue of Credit Union Times.