With the ever-growing and ever-transforming digital world, technology has been completely redefined to offer sophistication to the users. Besides, the transformation has equally made its way to the concept of security with the advancement of hacking attempts and malware attacks.
Especially when cyber-crime costs organizations $2.9 million every minute, and society is digitizing at a very fast pace with the adoption of homeworking, the situation has created a wide range of opportunities for hackers, phishers, and scammers.
And since we are heading into 2022, it has become even more important than ever for individuals as well as businesses to be prepared for the ever-growing threat of attacks and upgrade the existing security benchmarks.
Though one way to do so is making a timely investment in security testing services, it is equally important to understand the most significant trends in cyber security that can help us all to avoid being victimized.
Let's begin.
Cybersecurity & AI
Just like Artificial Intelligence is making its way into smart intrusion detection systems at home or fraud detection on financial portals, AI technology can be trained to counter cyber-attacks. The process works by analyzing the not-so-ordinary patterns on the web that might be dangerous from a security point of view. The technology can be implemented to a large number of events happening on the web and can therefore detect the likely areas of the strike.
The entire value that cybersecurity leverages from AI comes from the ability of technology to predict uncertainties. And therefore, it is very likely that business enthusiasts, as well as employee-oriented organizations that are using some sort of 'work-from-home' framework, will make a bigger move towards AI in Cybersecurity in 2022.
Especially when potential digital tools like machine learning are being used to evade cybersecurity, switching to AI technology becomes more significant.
The Ransomware Threat
According to research made by Cognyte, "1,097 organizations were hit by ransomware attacks in the first half of 2021. In contrast, our 2020 report found 1,112 ransomware attacks for the entire year. These attacks involved data exfiltration and the leakage of the victim's data."
Besides, the UK National Cyber Security Centre reported the number of ransomware attacks to increase by three folds in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the whole of 2019. Adding to that, a survey made by PwC has confirmed that 61 percent of tech executives believe these numbers to increase in 2022. Though the sudden shift of financial activities on digital platforms due to the pandemic can be considered as a reason for increased threat, there is no time better than now to take action.
In its most typical form, ransomware attacks are all about infecting devices with malicious content or virus that blocks the user data with unbreakable cryptography. The attackers usually ask for ransom which is an untraceable cryptocurrency, in return for not destroying the user data. Besides, the attackers at times threaten the user on publicizing the user data and driving massive liabilities to the user organization.
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It is typically implemented through phishing, a digital process of tricking the user into sharing personal information or clicking vulnerable links that leads to malware. However, the newest form of ransomware attacks can be seen done through infected USB devices and involve people having direct access to systems.
Surprisingly, these types of attacks have made their way to not-so-popular areas of attack with recent cases of ransomware threats to water treatment facilities, chemical operations facilities, gas pipelines, and even hospitals. This is why Education becomes the best tool for preventing such kinds of attacks, as research has found that employees trained on digital threats are 8X less likely to get tricked.
Internet of Things or Internet of Vulnerability
As per the reports shared by Statista, global spending on IoT technology is likely to grow by 1.1 trillion by 2023. Besides, consumer spending on smart hot home systems is predicted to reach 123 bn USD by the end of 2021.
Though the numbers appear good for all the tech enthusiasts who are progressing towards the concept of digital transformation, the increase in IoT devices and smart home systems call for an increased number of access points for cybercriminals. Since IoT devices are all about connected systems that involve fridges, kettles, and computers all running on the same network, the hackers could enter the system to take control of the valuable data.
As a matter of progress, the more sophisticated IoT solutions are likely to be based on 'The Digital Twins' concept where comprehensive digital simulations of the business system. The digital twin works on modelling the IoT user data and therefore could serve as the access point to all with nefarious intentions.
All in all, 2022 is very likely to experience an increase in attacks on IoT systems, edge computing devices, and even the centralized cloud infrastructure. One of the best ways to resist the chances of an attack on IoT systems could be Education and awareness. Besides, the users or service providers should aim at auditing the device performance and data to check on any weak access links that are vulnerable and may bring threats.
Extended Digital Partnerships
When it comes to cybersecurity operations, the organizations aiming at digitization usually align with certain partnerships that are done on purpose to strengthen the supply chain. However, adding such links to the model increases the potential for vulnerability, and therefore 2022 is going to be a year of cybersecurity resilience. It means the organizations will be more particular about the partner they would choose to prevent exposure against cybersecurity risks.
The statement is backed up by research made by Gartner, which found that 60 per cent of organizations would consider cybersecurity risk as a primary determinant factor for choosing an organization to conduct business by 2025.
Besides the wake of legislation like European GDPR, Chinese personal information protection law, and Californian consumer privacy act, are likely to call for bigger penalties for organizations responsible for security slips. In other words, any organization that is found incapable of answering the cybersecurity arrangements or rating is likely to experience a backlog in business. As per Gartner, it is even likely to make way for industry-standard security rating schemes like Black kite, security scorecard, etc. To justify their business credibility.
The Crux
Concluding it all, one of the most significant reasons behind the increasing chances of cyber-attacks is the ever-changing nature of technology and organizations poorly aligned to embed those changes with their system before the cyber attackers. However, when it comes to the loss caused by the cyberattacks, the amounts usually jump up to billions or trillion dollars of information compromises.
Therefore, 2022 is going to be a year of enhancing the existing regulations during the expansion of breach cover against the potential damage. Besides, there seems a very likely change in jurisdiction and laws related to digital data and privacy policies that leverage the space of ransomware attacks. This is why 2022 is going to be a year where Chief IT Security officers will be more actively involved with CFOs and CEOs in their approach to limit data thefts, breaches, loss, and customer data compromises.
At BugRaptors, we believe working on such measures will bear more fruitful results leading to sustainable security in the long term. And if you are working on some applications, software, or website that need attention, our experts at BugRaptors could bring you the most dynamic security testing services.
For more information on your security testing needs, feel free to reach our experts through info@bugraptors.com
