As I’m sitting here sipping on my eggnog, I’m thinking about how much changes in a year. These words were not even a common part of my vocabulary 12 months ago: ransomware, Bitcoin, ICO, digital identity, GDPR, blockchain, AI and machine learning.

Today’s internet speeds worldwide are 30 percent faster on average than last year, according to the recently published November 2017 Speedtest Global Index from Ookla, a global broadband speed test company that operates the famous speedtest.net website.

The only constant in the world is change, and that is especially true in the field of technology. So what changes can we expect in 2018?

The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is coming into effect on May 25, 2018, and for many companies, the challenges presented by this new regulation may be reminiscent of the USA’s Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) from the early 2000s. Just like GDPR, SOX was designed to increase data transparency, and just like GDPR, it had a global effect, including on many companies outside of U.S. jurisdiction.