By Andrew Elvish

As you know, security is a fast-paced industry that touches the lives of hundreds of millions of people every day. What we do and what impacts us has the potential to effect organizations, communities, and governments around the globe. This is one of the reasons why a look at the top five trends for the year ahead cannot be taken lightly. After careful consideration, here?s what I think will be impacting our world in 2019.

Increased concerns around data privacy[subhead]
We in the industry have been thinking about privacy for a long time, and there is no sign that this is about to change. In fact, Europe?s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect earlier this year, and now many jurisdictions, including California, are following suit with new legislation based on it. Moving forward, concerns around privacy will likely reach new levels as both governments and international organizations come to terms with how they will navigate these rules. And this is great news.

Individuals everywhere are becoming increasingly sensitized to how their data and information are being used. We are already seeing the rise of technologies designed with privacy in mind. Companies that are able to leverage this forward-thinking approach will be the winners in the years ahead.

Data science and computer vision is on the rise [subhead]
There has been a lot of talk about what data science is and what it can be used for. The current applications of data science are ideal for improving efficiency and deriving understanding between datasets.