Introduction
Now that we’re a little ways into 2022, you’re starting to see whether your new year’s resolutions are on the right track! If you started new security procedures as part of 2022, it’s time to see if they’re protecting you as intended or need some tweaking to work their best.
To help inform your cybersecurity plans for the coming months, we’ve developed these five predictions about how the security landscape will change in 2022.
1. Cyber Threats to Watch Out For
Criminals were kept inside just as much as the average worker in 2021, and many used that time to sharpen the tools they had in their arsenal. For example, ransomware has been a rising threat to businesses for years but it reached all-new heights during the pandemic, and that upward trend is expected to continue throughout 2022. You can even buy ransomware as a service, or RaaS, on the Dark Web these days!
These are also called “ransomware kits” because they’re essentially prepackaged services that cybercriminals purchase ready-made for deployment on an unsuspecting business. Developments like these are why ransomware continues to dominate the prominent cyber-threats of 2022.
What else should you be wary about?
- Zero-day exploits. Expect cybercriminals to get smarter and faster at hacking new softwares before their vulnerabilities can be patched. To combat the risk, many companies are performing risk and vulnerability assessments before launch.
- Supply chain attacks will continue to challenge MSPs.
- AI is the source of great strides forward in cybersecurity, but that’s opened just as many doors for criminals to weaponize artificial intelligence against businesses too. We’ll expand on AI in a moment.
- There are an average of 50 CVE (common vulnerabilities and exposures) every day. That’s about 18K for all of 2021!
These are just a few of the threats your business might face in the coming year. Learn how to recognize and report common threats to reduce the damage they do, in the event your company becomes a target.
2. Prevention Measures on the Rise
It’s not just cybercriminal activity that’s changing with the digital world. Infosec specialists work just as hard to develop cutting-edge security solutions, and sometimes that means prevention and not reaction. As a result, expect to see even more emphasis on preventative behaviors this coming year. From risk assessments to increased cloud security, businesses are getting serious about patching vulnerabilities BEFORE they can be exploited.
Ethical hacking in particular has contributed to corporate safety. This refers to the practice of hiring a hacker to legally see where they can break into your network, as well as how far they can penetrate once inside. What information can they find, whose accounts could they compromise? This demonstrates where the biggest problem areas lie before real hackers get to it first.
There are daily actions you can take to increase security, too. For example multi-factor authentication is becoming more commonplace, particularly to guard accounts that hold financial or other top-secret information. This requires the user to verify their identity through some other means to make it more difficult for hackers to break in via simple password breach.
3. AI: Good, Bad or Something Else?
Artificial intelligence, better known as AI, plays a major role in digital security. It can be bad, like AI botnets designed to turn computers via malware into an army of threats all acting under the direction of one controlling party’s interest. They can also be relied on in vulnerability assessments to detect where cybercriminals are most likely to breach your network based on the modern threat landscape and the protections you currently have set up.
AI is complex. It’s not inherently good or bad, although it can be bent to either side’s advantage in cybersecurity’s fight against threat actors. Regardless of your affinity towards it, AI certainly seems to be a useful tool that people will reach for even more often moving forward.
4. Vulnerability and Risk Assessments
Don’t want to trust a stranger to hack your most confidential files, even while you’re looking over their shoulder? There are algorithms that can perform the same tasks for you that an ethical hacker would. Vulnerability assessments look over your security profile, pull information from global databases to determine real-world threats to the network, and generate reports regarding what aspects of your network are most likely to be targeted in a cyberattack.
Risk assessments further determine what assets are at risk, the level of risk present according to modern industry standards, and how to mitigate the potential effects before they’re exploited for profit. Together, vulnerability and risk assessments are showing businesses exactly where their security standards rank compared to the threats they’ll face in 2022.
5. Regulations About Cybercrime
It’s not only businesses becoming more vigilant, but government regulations are following suit to try and protect both national security and the private sector as a whole. The Cybersecurity Act of 2021 expanded the definitions of several crimes to better reflect modern issues plaguing businesses online. It also allocated more resources to national cybersecurity organizations tasked with protecting critical infrastructure.
This, alongside many state laws that can cropped up in recent years, suggests that local and federal governments are taking cybersecurity more seriously, especially when it comes to understanding the unique risks associated with online behaviors. 2022 may expand on some of these regulations as we learn more about emerging risks, consequences and technologies.
Conclusion
As we move further into 2022, we’ll learn more about what threats cybercriminals are leveraging and how businesses are choosing to adapt to these threats. However based on the trends tracked over the past several years, we can reasonably expect to see the preeminent threats and preemptive responses gaining popularity as technology advances too.
Don’t wait until you become a target. As more businesses embrace flexible work-from-home structures, it becomes even more critical to protect yourself online. It’s not too late to make a commitment to cybersecurity in 2022!
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