Looking from the outside in, there’s a lot going on in the information security industry. Risk here, governance there, cyber-cyber everywhere. But even with all the overhyped headlines industrywide, there are some important themes that stand out across various industry sectors.

What Are the Hottest Information Security Topics?

Here are some of the hottest topics that I’m seeing across industries:

Financial Services

With the financial industry arguably considered the largest target for cybercriminals, there’s a lot of focus around protecting the goods from ill intent. Fraud prevention and authentication are core themes, as well as incident analysis/response, especially given the reality that many financial transactions are at-risk or already compromised due to the lack of security on end user systems.

Information sharing across the industry by organizations such as the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) is front and center, as well.

Retail

The retail industry has some struggles similar to the financial services industry, with a seemingly additional layer of malware complexity piled on top. Of course, there are also the forthcoming FTC investigations into the audit habits of PCI QSAs.

This industry has a lot going on in terms of managing information risks. There’s plenty of talk around retail security and information sharing concerns, including the presence of the retail sector equivalent of the financial services’ ISAC.

Health Care

There are various cyber themes that impact health care, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and security maturity. HIPAA has been in place for more than 11 years, and the more recent Omnibus Rule updates mandate — among other things — compliance by health care business associates and their subcontractors. Organizations also have to contend with the forthcoming HIPAA audits.

Given the powers that be and (de)motivators involved at the health care practitioner level, I’m not sure that continued cries for HIPAA security compliance will drive further improvements.

Energy and Utilities

Everyone knows energy and utility companies are prime targets for attack. Fortunately, not unlike financial services, these organizations are typically ahead of the curve in terms of network resiliency — something I have witnessed myself in my own work assessing SCADA network environments.

Still, there are discussions about the security maturity of this industry. There’s always room for improvement, especially in terms of protecting against advanced malware and, of course, information sharing.

Regardless of what sector you do business in, there’s something going on — often something urgent — related to information security. These issues alone are enough to leave you chock full of to-do items for the year to come.

Read the IBM 2016 Cyber Security Intelligence Index for a look at trends across industries