Cybersecurity has been a top priority for many people since the dot-com boom brought the entire globe online in the second half of the 1990s.
The number and severity of cyber crimes have increased dramatically in just a few years due to previously unheard-of occurrences like the COVID-19 epidemic, disputed elections, and escalating geopolitical unrest. Over time, it’s expected that security risks will increase sophistication and cost more money.
Changes In Cybersecurity Landscape Due To Technological Advancements
Over the past two years, we have witnessed many new types of cybersecurity threats and risks emerging, changing the cybersecurity landscape. The Internet of Things (IoT) combines your device policies and cloud projects. Hackers now have new avenues to enter your business, as trends like remote work have significantly extended the attack surface.
These hackers now have new tools to spread malware, zero in on high-end targets, and access a broader range of audiences thanks to technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Cybercriminals are developing more advanced and evasive techniques as these technologies advance.
The secret to averting a cybersecurity assault is proactive protection. Businesses need to discover the top cybersecurity risks that the globe will face in 2022 and what you can do to prevent yourself and your company from becoming a target.
Major Types of Cyber Attacks You Should Be Aware Of In 2022
The following are a few of the biggest cybersecurity challenges of 2022:
Third-Party Exposure
Cybercriminals can circumvent security measures by breaking into less secure networks belonging to third parties with privileged access to the hacker’s principal target.
Third-party breaches will pose an even more significant hazard in 2022 as businesses increasingly use independent contractors to carry out tasks that full-time workers formerly did.
Over 50% of organizations are more likely to hire freelancers due to the transition to remote work brought on by COVID-19, according to a 2021 labor trends analysis.
Further. as per the cybersecurity company CyberArk, 96 percent of firms provide these outside parties access to critical systems, opening up a potentially vulnerable entry point for hackers to their data.
The Cyber Pandemic Is Still Active
The COVID-19 epidemic prompted a significant change in corporate practices. A far higher proportion of the workforce now works remotely, and this trend is anticipated to continue for the foreseeable future rather than people predominantly working from the corporate office.
As cyber threat actors adjusted to and profited from changes in corporate IT operations, the pandemic started a cyber pandemic.
The emergence of remote work rendered employees’ computers, frequently personal devices, the first line of defense for a firm. The rapid uptake of cloud computing to serve the remote workforce and achieve digital transformation goals gave cyber threat actors new attack avenues.
While the number of businesses supporting a remote workforce is increasing, cloud adoption is not. Companies struggle to secure their systems and protect business and consumer data as hackers exploit the vulnerabilities and security holes brought on by this rapid IT transition.
Phishing
Because people use electronic communication frequently, phishing is one of the most prevalent cyber-attacks.
This threat is expected to grow as the use of email and instant messaging in the workplace increases, according to Straight Edge Technology. Attackers are aware of this. Thus, some target employees at this hour by flooding them with bogus emails and social network accounts. After all, all it takes is for one employee to make a mistake for a hacker to compromise the integrity of a company.
Poor Cyber Hygiene
Regular technological usage routines and practices are called “cyber hygiene,” such as avoiding open WiFi networks and using security measures like multi-factor authentication or a VPN.
Since more people are working remotely, weak password-protected systems are now accessible from unprotected home networks, sticky note passwords are being used in public coffee shops, and employees are signing in using personal devices that are far more likely to be lost or stolen.
Businesses and individuals who don’t update their cyber procedures run a lot more risk than they did in the past.
More Personal Devices On The Network Of The Company
Work from home has blurred the lines between work and personal life for many people. Both professional and personal devices are comparable in this regard.
Your remote workers are likelier to attend a conference call, check their email, or download reports using their mobile devices. This leaves security teams with a blind hole because it makes it harder to protect corporate resources in the cloud when they aren’t visible to the endpoints accessing them.
Organizations are typically subject to several cybersecurity threats due to unidentified and uncontrolled endpoints. When free WiFi is accessible, many users frequently connect to it, raising the possibility that business information will be transmitted across an unsecured network. Additionally, any data kept on these personal devices are highly vulnerable if they are ever lost or stolen.
Poor Data Management
Maintaining order in your storage and organization systems is only one aspect of data management. To put things in perspective, consumer-generated data doubles every four years, but more than half of it is never used or evaluated. Data becomes exposed to cyber attacks due to misunderstandings caused by mountains of excess data.
Experts anticipate that 2022 will see a more significant shift away from “big data” toward “right data” or emphasizing retaining only the necessary data. This shift is due in part to the exponential growth of data that has occurred over the past ten years.
Teams will rely more on automation to separate relevant data from irrelevant data, but automation has problems.
Automated systems operate similarly to spiderwebs in that a little incident on one side of the web might impact the entire system. Although Artificial Intelligence is used to process data, the rules and parameters that AI is told to obey are still set by humans and subject to human mistakes.
Conclusion
It might be overwhelming to keep up with and defend against brand-new cybersecurity threats as they emerge. Even the most robust cybersecurity system can’t guarantee protection from attacks since millions of hackers are working around the clock to create new attack techniques faster than businesses can upgrade their defense.
To ensure that your business won’t be destroyed even if you are the target of a successful attack, it is crucial to augment your cybersecurity strategy with proper insurance.
