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What are the greatest security threats you face this year? What are the cybersecurity trends helping you fight attacks? Here’s what you need to know.
Cybersecurity trends have evolved considerably over the past few years. As hackers have become more adept at breaking through advanced firewalls, companies have had to update their systems. Millions around the globe are affected by data breaches, while cyber crime continues to run rampant. Cybersecurity is a major concern for businesses, individuals, and organizations alike.
Cyberattacks are now the fastest growing crime on a global scale. Financial losses from cybercrime exceed the total losses incurred from the global trade of all illegal drugs. Hence, it comes as no surprise that individuals and organizations operating on the web live in fear of potential hacking scenarios and data breaches. Aside from financial losses, such forms of cyber attacks can lead to reputation damage as well. Consumer data, when compromised, can subject businesses to strict regulations and costly settlements.
Half of these cyberattacks are targeting small businesses that usually don’t have sufficient cybersecurity measures to protect themselves from such threats. Based on a 2020 survey, the most common cyber attacks experienced by US companies are phishing (38%), network intrusion (32%), inadvertent disclosure (12%), stolen/lost device or records (8%), and system misconfiguration (5%) (BakerHostetler, 2020).
That’s why it’s important you pay attention to the latest cybersecurity trends. Here are the top cybersecurity trends of 2022.
1. Rising Ransomware Threats
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One of the biggest cybersecurity trends of 2022 is the rise of ransomware attacks. Ransomware essentially holds your files hostage until you pay a specific amount, usually in cryptocurrency.
Obviously, there’s no guarantee that your files will be unlocked even after you make the payment. In most cases, it’s a slippery slope, with ransomware gangs preying on the less tech-savvy and demanding increasing sums of money. All it takes is a single malicious file download to spread the infection throughout a hard drive.
This is a serious problem for companies, especially if an unsuspecting employee downloads ransomware on to their computer. There’s a risk of the entire network being held hostage, which could effectively grind business to a halt. But obviously that’s also a problem for individuals — no one is safe from ransomware.
In the first half of 2021, the total ransomware payments reported by banks were $590 million. This figure is only expected to increase by the end of 2022.
2. The Meteoric Growth of Security-as-a-Service
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Many Security-as-a-Service businesses have gained traction as companies look into advanced, modular technologies that allow them to reduce malware or ransomware threats.
Instead of building ground-up firewall solutions, an increasing number of companies are now opting for Security-as-a-Service options. These are security solutions offered by a managed security service provider, and are generally tailored according to the needs of the organization.
This also ensures that the company is able to benefit by working with a team of technological experts with a better understanding of cybersecurity, as compared to hiring an in-house IT professional to focus on reactive troubleshooting and ad hoc fixes.
3. Geo-Targeted Phishing Attacks
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Phishing attacks continue to rise in frequency and severity. In fact, Phishing as a Service exists too, so it’s all the more important for people to protect themselves online.
Currently, phishing scams are the biggest threat that the IT industry faces. Millions fall for these elaborate scams, where cybercriminals use different methods to execute all kinds of scams, from elaborate business email compromise schemes to injecting malicious URLs in emails.
In the past, cybercriminals would often cast a broader net and wait for people to fall prey to their scams. Now, phishing can be more personalized and geo-targeted.
Scammers now use your geolocation to create custom phishing websites or email chains to target victims. This makes it difficult for individuals to distinguish between phishing scams and the real deal, which is one of the reasons why they end up falling prey to these scams.
4. Multi-Factor Authentication Becomes a Standard
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For too long, the global IT sector has dithered on adopting Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) as a standard. That, thankfully, is now changing. Many organizations, especially in the financial technology sector, have introduced MFA and made it mandatory for all users.
Multi-factor authentication essentially adds another layer of security, preventing unauthorized access to online accounts. Almost every major company now requires individuals to use multi-factor authentication, ranging from social media platforms to email services.
MFA ensures that organizations can better protect their employees’ data and control access. Whenever a person signs in, they must also enter a verification code, which is sent through an authenticator app, or to their registered phone number.
5. IoT Vulnerabilities
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The Internet of Things (IoT) has completely changed the way we interact with devices. IoT devices are dominating the consumer markets, and despite some common security issues with IoT devices, most people generally have high confidence in them.
However, while they offer greater convenience, IoT also poses increased risks to a user’s data. In case a device is hacked or hijacked, it could essentially listen in and steal information from the network.
Hackers have found a new gateway to access information, and are utilizing it to the fullest. For instance, hackers often try to hack into connected camera networks or devices in order to access security systems.
However, confidence is still high, with global IoT spending growing 24 percent in 2021. Most of the investments are by businesses in the IoT software and security space.
IoT vulnerabilities pose a unique challenge, since they’re used for specific purposes. The communication protocols used to connect with different devices also expose the network to software bugs or vulnerabilities, increasing the potential for harmful attacks if proper security steps aren’t taken.
7. Cybersecurity Regulations Likely to Get Stricter
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As the world moves to remote models of work, companies and governments alike are doubling down on cybersecurity. We can expect cybersecurity regulations to get stricter with time, especially as decentralization of access becomes the norm.
However, protecting a company’s network is important, and in order to do this, many regulatory bodies have made it mandatory for organizations to offer user awareness and cybersecurity training to their professionals.
The aim is to ensure that employees are aware of the different techniques and scams that they could be exposed to, and know the appropriate security measures they have to take. More importantly, companies might also be expected to undergo IT audits to ensure that they have taken appropriate measures to protect their networks against cyberattacks.
8. User Awareness
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As cyber threats become more aggressive each day, businesses and organizations take major steps to strengthen their security measures. For many establishments, cybersecurity awareness is essential to prevent costly identity theft and network hacks that can destroy any company or individual’s reputation. Apart from implementing firewalls and sophisticated IT protocols, companies now deem it important to augment the capabilities of their IT personnel via seminars and the like. After all, 80% of data breaches can easily be prevented by practicing cyber hygiene (Cyber Observer, 2020).
What drives cybersecurity awareness forward is the growing number of people unaware of most cyberattack methods. A report by Infosec indicates that about 97% of the people in the world cannot identify a phishing email, while 1 in 25 people click such emails, thus, falling prey to cyberattacks (Infosec). Aside from this, cybercriminals now resort to more advanced and high-tech forms of phishing and malware infections.
In turn, cybersecurity awareness could help prevent the onslaught of threats and attacks. Some organizations have started to implement the combined use of web- and classroom-based methods and visual aids for cybersecurity awareness training and promotions. On top of this, companies now create policies focusing on how employees handle and share confidential corporate data.
9. Attacks on the Healthcare Sector
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Failing to combat cyber threats in the healthcare sector exposes many individuals and organizations to all sorts of liability and security issues. This led to hospitals and health organizations investing more in cybersecurity. In 2019, the value of the healthcare cybersecurity market was 9.78 billion and this is projected to rise to $33.65 billion by 2027 (GlobeNewswire, 2020). Taking into account the impact of COVID-19 on the healthcare sector, experts predict that the market might reach $125 billion as early as 2025 (Cybersecurity Ventures, 2020).
Data breaches are among the leading cybersecurity trends in healthcare. From 2015 to 2019, 157.40 million of healthcare records were exposed (Healthcare, 2020). According to IBM, data breaches like this in the healthcare industry can cost organizations an average of $7.13 million in 2020 (IBM, 2020). As a result, healthcare organizations now pay more considerable attention to their digital security requirements. In turn, this drives considerable growth for the cybersecurity market in the healthcare sector.
However, amid the Coronavirus outbreak, some healthcare organizations temporarily relaxed their firewall rules to make it easier for staff to work from home. Many also needed to expand telehealth services and erect temporary medical facilities that bypassed some of the security diligence protocols of vendors or lacked the usual security infrastructure present in established hospitals.
These figures show that cyberattacks in the healthcare sector are far from being stopped. Data breaches present a continuing threat to health organizations as sensitive information about businesses, employees, and patients remains the top target of cybercriminals. According to a survey by the law firm BakerHostetler, US health systems and hospitals account for about a quarter of cyberattacks in the country.
10. Machine Learning
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In cybersecurity, the role of machine learning (ML) is growing and has now become more proactive. With ML, cybersecurity becomes simpler, more effective, and, at the same time, less expensive. From a rich dataset, ML develops patterns and manipulates them with algorithms. This way, it can anticipate and respond to active attacks in real-time.
This technology heavily relies on rich and sophisticated data to produce effective algorithms. The data must come from everywhere and represent as many potential scenarios as possible. Implementing ML, thus, allows cybersecurity systems to analyze threat patterns and learn cybercriminals’ behaviors. These help to prevent similar attacks in the future and also reduces the amount of time needed for cybersecurity experts to perform routine tasks.
11. Cloud Security
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With the help of the best cloud management software solutions, more and more businesses and organizations are migrating to the cloud. However, most cloud services right now do not offer secure encryption, authentication, and audit logging. Some also fail to isolate user data from other tenants sharing space in the cloud. Therefore, IT security professionals see the need to tighten cloud security.
Poor configuration of cloud security can lead to cybercriminals bypassing internal policies that protect sensitive information in the cloud database. Accordingly, security in the cloud is progressing into predictive and innovative security to combat cyber attackers.
Predictive security is becoming useful in identifying threats before attackers begin their move. It can pinpoint attacks that pass through other endpoint security. As a result, businesses are implementing predictive security cloud, with the market gaining a 261% ROI for over three years now (VMWare Carbon Black, 2019). Meanwhile, some sectors have also resorted to leveraging multi-factor authentication to reinforce security.
12. GDPR Compliance
The general data protection regulation, or GDPR, is one of the most significant developments in data privacy regulation across the European Union (EU) nations. But while the law has EU origins, any company that is marketing goods or services to EU residents need to comply with the new regulation regardless of their location. Consequently, GDPR is having an immense impact on global data protection requirements.
GDPR imposes a uniform and consistent data security law on all EU nations. This eliminates the need for each member state to write their data protection law. GDPR, thus, provides more consistent protection of consumer and personal data of EU residents. Although it protects only EU citizens, the law affects all businesses and organizations targeting the European market.
As the law is fairly new, some are still not ready to become GDPR-compliant. As of June 2019, only 28% of companies are able to achieve compliance — a far cry from the 78% of organizations that were hoping to be compliant by 2018 (Help Net Security, 2019). Nonetheless, organizations around the world are gradually applying changes and restructuring to comply with the new law.
13. Threats to Higher Education
Cybersecurity is now among the top priorities of those in the higher education sector, especially with the rise of online learning and remote work in pandemic times. Cybersecurity trends in higher education primarily involve compromised student data. Just this year, three private universities fell victim to a cyberattack that involved the hacking of student admission data (Inside Higher Ed, 2019). This called the attention of those in the higher education sector to actively promote tighter security for the protection of student, faculty, and research data in the institution.
Security Scorecard’s 2018 Education Cybersecurity Report pointed out that in terms of cybersecurity, education comes in last out of the 17 industries in the US (Security Scorecard). Furthermore, the report indicates that the higher education sector is performing poorly in patching cadence, network security, and application security. This is even more alarming as 11% of attacks on US educational institutions are motivated by espionage (Verizon, 2019).
Fortunately, as the number of cyberattacks targeting higher education grows, institutions are now moving towards a new security architecture that includes post-perimeter security on endpoint protection, access to the cloud, and identity information.
14. Mobile Devices as Attack Vectors
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These days, nearly everyone uses smart mobile devices — 66.6% of the world population as of 2021, to be specific (DataReportal, 2021). Most leading ecommerce software and platforms are accessible through mobile platforms. Cybercriminals, however, see this as an opportunity to target mobile users and use mobile devices as attack vectors.
Mobile devices are becoming a great channel of opportunity for cybercriminals as users continue to use their mobile devices for personal and business communications, as well as banking, shopping, flight, or hotel bookings. These devices became targets of cyberattacks. According to the RSA’s 2019 Current State of Cybercrime whitepaper, about 70% of fraudulent transactions originated from mobile platforms, with popular mobile attack vectors including malware, data tampering, and data loss (RSA, 2019).
15. Financial Services Cyberattacks
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The financial services sector is another industry facing cyber threats daily. It also doesn’t help that some financial organizations are still struggling to keep pace with cloud migration and the increasing number of regulations. Phishing attacks remain prevalent in the financial services sector, but it’s no longer just via emails. Phishing through social media and other messaging platforms is now among the cybersecurity trends in financial services.
Aside from phishing attacks, the most common threats faced by insurance companies, banks, and asset managers include malware attacks and data breaches. A report by Boston Consulting Group revealed that financial services firms are 300 times more prone to cybersecurity attacks than businesses in other industries (BCG, 2019). Moreover, cyber attacks on financial institutions spiked by a massive 238% from the beginning of February to the end of April 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic (Infosecurity Magazine, 2020). Attacks now cost the banking industry $18.3 million per enterprise (Security Boulevard, 2020).
Developments in the Cybersecurity Arena
No one exactly knows what the future holds for the cybersecurity arena and many sectors are still figuring out how to fortify their networks in the middle of the chaos and uncertainties of the pandemic. But these latest trends provide us with insights into what we can expect in the years to come. What’s clear is that IT security software developers and admins would be busy for years to come.
Sure, popular ecommerce platforms make it easy for businesses to establish their shops online. However, they expose many people to security threats too. Attacks like phishing, malware, and data breaches will not end soon. It gets harder to keep cybercriminals down. When it happens, they usually display resilience, getting back with a vengeance using more advanced types of attacks.
With most businesses establishing their operations in cyberspace, a tight security system is not just an option — it is a must-have if you want to ensure fool-proof protection for your company and your consumers. Identifying critical attack areas and anticipating possible attack scenarios can help you avoid becoming a victim of such attacks. And in case you’re looking for the perfect security software for your company, we compiled one of best IT security companies currently available.
Top IT Security from Cyber Aeronautycs Ltd.
- CAL Defense. Cybercriminals strike at businesses every day in the hopes of extorting ransom payments or stealing sensitive information. “CAL Defense” use next-generation techniques to effectively halt both known and unknown types of malware in their tracks.
- CAL Secure Backup Cloud. Overcoming the growing complexity of IT infrastructures and sophisticated cyberattacks requires a comprehensive backup solution to keep every bit of data safe.
CAL Secure Backup Cloud unites backup-as-a-service with AI-based anti ransomware technologies to safeguard any workload in any environment — physical or virtualized, on-premises, or in the cloud. With support for more than 25 platforms, you can handle any use case, retain clients, and expand your total addressable market.
3. Cal Secure Files Cloud. A Secure File Sync and Share Solution Designed for Service Providers. CAL Secure Files Cloud provides mobile users with convenient file sync and share capabilities in an intuitive, complete, and securely hosted cloud solution. Easy to sell and implement, CAL Secure Files Cloud expands your product portfolio and helps you quickly attract new customers, discover incremental revenue and reduce customer churn.
4. CAL Secure Notary Cloud. CAL Secure Notary Cloud is a blockchain-based service for file notarization, e-signing and verification for businesses of any size. Designed exclusively for service providers, it allows your customers to ensure the integrity of their business-critical data, while achieving regulatory transparency and decreasing security risks.
5. CAL Disaster Recovery As A Service. Protect your client’s workloads when disaster strikes by instantly spinning up systems in the Cloud and restoring them anywhere. Adding this service to your clients ensures their data is immediately available — and with us it’s as easy as flipping a switch.
The Future of Cybersecurity Looks Bright
Industry leaders and organizations are constantly looking at ways to improve cybersecurity as a whole and mitigate threats.
With increased user awareness and training, and a focus on improving the security infrastructure as a whole, you might think that cyberattacks will dwindle over time — but they, too, shall evolve. Nonetheless, simple steps, such as protecting your network from insider threats, can go a long way in ensuring business continuity!
Reference :
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