Top 10 Cybersecurity Trends 2022

Cybersecurity is a dynamic industry in which hackers and security providers compete to outwit one another. Constantly, both new dangers and inventive countermeasures emerge. This article examines the most recent cyber security developments.

1. Remote working cybersecurity risks

The Covid-19 outbreak compelled the majority of enterprises to swiftly transition their workforces to remote employment. Numerous polls indicate that a significant section of the workforce will continue to work remotely after the epidemic.

Working from home introduces new cybersecurity threats and is one of the most discussed new cybersecurity trends. Home offices are often less secure than centralized workplaces, which typically have more secure firewalls, routers, and access control systems administered by IT security teams. In the haste to maintain operations, typical security screening may not have been as stringent as normal, and hackers have adapted their methods accordingly.

Many workers use their own devices for two-factor authentication, and they may have mobile apps for instant messaging clients like Microsoft Teams and Zoom. This lack of separation between personal and professional life increases the likelihood that sensitive information may fall into the wrong hands.

Organizations focusing on the security problems of remote workforces is, thus, a crucial cybersecurity trend. This involves discovering and mitigating emerging security risks, enhancing systems, installing security controls, and ensuring adequate monitoring and documentation.

2. The Internet of Things (IoT) evolving

The expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) increases the likelihood of cybercrime. The Internet of Things refers to non-computer, non-phone, and non-server devices that connect to the internet and exchange data. Wearable fitness trackers, smart refrigerators, smartwatches, and voice assistants such as Amazon Echo and Google Home are examples of IoT products. It is anticipated that 64 billion IoT devices will be deployed worldwide by 2026. The tendency toward remote work is contributing to this growth.

Numerous new gadgets alter the size and dynamics of what is commonly referred to as the cyber-attack surface or the number of possible entry points for malevolent actors. Most IoT devices have inferior processing and storage capacities when compared to laptops and smartphones. This may make it more difficult to protect them with firewalls, antivirus software, and other security apps. As a consequence, IoT threats are among the cyber-attack topics being studied.

3. The rise of ransomware

Ransomware has existed for around two decades, but its prevalence is expanding. There are already over 120 distinct ransomware families, and hackers have gotten efficient at concealing dangerous code. Part of ransomware’s increase might be attributed to the relative ease with which cybercriminals can get financial benefits. The Covid-19 epidemic was another issue. The rapid digitalization of many enterprises combined with remote working has generated new ransomware targets. As a consequence, both the number of attacks and the magnitude of demands grew.

In extortion attacks, thieves take a firm’s data and encrypt it so that the company cannot access it. After then, hackers blackmail the organization by threatening to reveal its confidential information unless a ransom is paid. Given the sensitive information at risk and the economic implications of paying the ransom, this cyberthreat imposes a hefty cost.

In 2020, ransomware contributed to the first documented fatality associated with a cyber-attack. In this instance, a German hospital was shut out of its systems, preventing it from treating patients. A lady in need of immediate medical attention was transported to a hospital 20 miles away, but she did not survive.

The sophistication of phishing attacks used by ransomware criminals is increasing as a result of machine learning and more coordinated sharing on the dark web. Typically, hackers demand payment in cryptocurrencies that are difficult to track. In the near future, we may anticipate an increase in ransomware attacks on firms that lack cyber security.

4. Increase in cloud services and cloud security threats

Cloud vulnerability is one of the most prominent business trends in cyber security. Again, the extensive and quick adoption of remote working in the aftermath of the pandemic dramatically raised the need for cloud-based services and infrastructure, with security consequences for enterprises.

The advantages of cloud services include scalability, efficiency, and cost savings. In addition, they are a prominent target for attackers. Misconfigured cloud settings are a major source of data breaches, illegal access, insecure interfaces, and account compromise. The average cost of a data breach is $3.86 million; thus, enterprises must mitigate cloud vulnerabilities.

In addition to data breaches, the following network security trends and cloud security concerns face organizations:

Ensuring regulatory compliance across jurisdictions
Providing sufficient IT expertise to handle the demands of cloud computing
Cloud migration issues
Dealing with more potential entry points for attackers
Insider threats – some accidental, some intentional – are caused by unauthorized remote access, weak passwords, unsecured networks, and misuse of personal devices

5. Social engineering attacks growing smarter

Social engineering attacks, like phishing, are not new risks, but the rise of the remote workforce has made them more worrisome. Attackers target employees who connect from home to their employer’s network because they are easier targets. In addition to standard phishing attempts against workers, there has been an increase in whaling attacks against top leadership.

SMS phishing, often known as “smishing,” is growing in popularity due to the rise of messaging programs like WhatsApp, Slack, Skype, Signal, WeChat, and others. Utilizing these sites, attackers attempt to deceive consumers into installing malware onto their mobile devices.

Another kind is voice phishing, often known as “vishing,” which rose to popularity in a 2020 Twitter attack. Intruders impersonating IT personnel phoned customer service agents and duped them into granting access to a vital internal tool. Numerous enterprises, including financial institutions and huge corporations, have been targeted by vishing. There is also SIM jacking, in which fraudsters call the cell provider of a specific customer and persuade them that their SIM card has been compromised. This necessitates the transfer of the phone number to a new card. If the trick is effective, the cybercriminal has access to the phone’s data contents.

Organizations are bolstering their phishing defenses, but cybercriminals are always innovating to remain ahead. This includes sophisticated phishing kits that target victims in various ways based on their location.

6. Data privacy as a discipline

One of the most significant changes in data security is the emergence of data privacy as a distinct field. Numerous high-profile cyberattacks have exposed millions of records containing personally identifying information (PII). This, along with the implementation of stronger data legislation throughout the globe, such as the EU’s GDPR, has resulted in an increased emphasis on data privacy.

Organizations that do not adhere to regulations and customer expectations face penalties, negative publicity, and a loss of consumer confidence. Data protection touches almost every area of a company. As a consequence, firms are putting a greater focus on appointing data privacy officers and implementing role-based access control, multi-factor authentication, encryption in transit and at rest, network segmentation, and external evaluations to identify improvement opportunities.

7. Enhancing multi-factor authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is recognised as the authentication gold standard. However, unscrupulous actors are developing new methods to circumvent it, notably SMS and phone call authentication. Therefore, Microsoft urged users in 2020 to abandon phone-based MFA in favour of app-based authenticators and security keys.

SMS offers some built-in security, but the transmitted messages – including those used for authentication – are not encrypted. This implies that bad actors may automate man-in-the-middle attacks to get plaintext one-time passcodes. This creates a risk for online banking and other activities where SMS authentication is often used. To overcome this problem, banks and other companies will increasingly use on application-based MFA such as Google Authenticator, Authy, and others.

8. The ongoing development of artificial intelligence (AI)

The sheer amount of cybersecurity risks is unmanageable by humans alone. As a consequence, enterprises increasingly rely on AI and machine learning to improve their security architecture. In 2020, enterprises who experienced a data breach but had fully implemented AI technology saved an average of $3.58 million as a result.

In the development of automated security systems, natural language processing, facial identification, and autonomous threat detection, AI has become indispensable. AI also enables the analysis of vast volumes of risk data at an accelerated rate. This is advantageous for both huge corporations dealing with massive volumes of data and small or medium-sized businesses whose security teams may be understaffed.

While AI offers organisations a tremendous possibility for more powerful threat detection, criminals are using the technology to automate their attacks through data-poisoning and model-stealing methods. Many companies working in security domain anticipate that security technologies powered by AI and machine learning will continue to advance in complexity and capacity.

9. Mobile cybersecurity rising to the forefront

The trend toward remote work is boosting the development of mobile technology. Utilizing public Wi-Fi networks and remote collaboration technologies, it is typical for remote employees to move between a variety of mobile devices, such as tablets and phones, while using public Wi-Fi networks. Consequently, mobile threats continue to innovate and increase. The continuing deployment of 5G technology generates possible security vulnerabilities that will need to be fixed as they become identified.

Mobile dangers consist of:

Spyware created specifically to monitor encrypted communications apps.
Criminals abusing key Android smartphone security flaws.
Mobile malware offers a wide range of potential application scenarios, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, SMS spam, and data theft.

Mobile cybersecurity is a wide subject that includes back-end/cloud security, network security, and a network of increasingly linked items (i.e. the Internet of Things), such as wearables and automobiles. There is no one solution to safeguard applications in unsafe settings; rather, multiple security layers must be implemented to raise the overall degree of security. Combining mobile software security with hardware-based security solutions to strengthen the storage of critical data.

In this era of rapid digital change, hackers are always searching for new methods to target and destroy people and businesses, which means that cybersecurity concerns continue to grow.

10. Automation and Integration

As the volume of data continues to grow exponentially, it is imperative that automation be used to provide a more sophisticated level of data management. Automation is more useful than ever as a result of the increased pressure on experts and engineers to provide rapid and effective solutions in today’s demanding work environment. During the agile process, security measures are implemented to produce more secure software in every respect. In addition to being difficult to protect, large and sophisticated online applications are also difficult to automate, which makes automation and cyber security crucial to the software development process.