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Cybersecurity predictions for 2022 and beyond

By Shruthi
Published on March 15, 2022

Change is the only constant—this has rung true in many facets of 2021. Things are no different for the cybersecurity landscape. Decentralization of data due to remote work, globalization of workforces, and the emerging popularity of cryptocurrencies, have pushed IT security to build stronger and more flexible modules to ensure relevance and functionality. Following suit, the sophistication of cyberattacks has evolved, too.

Here are the top 4 predictions on cybersecurity trends from security experts:

The meddlesome ransom

  • 37% of organizations worldwide confirm they have been subject to some form of ransomware attack in 2021. Source: IDC 2021 Ransomware Study
  • 2,084 complaints were registered regarding ransomware attacks at the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Centre between January and July 2021. This accounts to a 62% year-on-year increase. Source: Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency

Ransomware attacks have gained a lot of traction due the widespread use of cryptocurrency, because ransom payments made using Bitcoins and Ethereum can't be easily tracked to any specific bank account. These attacks have developed so drastically that many attackers no longer have to build their own ransomware. They can avail it as a pay-per-use service from the dark web.

Usually, the threat actors encrypt important resources after infiltrating an organization and set a ransom for the decryption key. Now, they also exfiltrate the resources to a different location for other purposes such as leaking or recurring income through ransom.

Given these trends, we can be sure that more organizations are going to fall prey to ransomware attacks in 2022.

Data, data everywhere

  • 94 zettabytes of data is predicted to be created and consumed in 2022. For some perspective, if each terrabyte in a zettabyte is a kilometer, it would be equal to 1,300 round trips between the earth and the moon. Source: IDC & Statista

Irrespective of age, gender, or socioeconomic status, nearly everyone these days owns a mobile phone. Each tap and click on these private devices creates an exhaustive amount of data. Proper maintenance of this data is currently a major concern. This includes storage of, usage of, access to, and destruction of this data according to a suitable timeline. Data privacy laws and regulations have been evolving with these new developments, and ensuring compliance can be incredibly complicated.

Phishing times ahead

  • 36% of data breaches that occurred in 2021 involved phishing attacks Source: Check Point

Phishing attacks are engineered to steal sensitive information from the victim, such as email passwords and credit card details. This is usually achieved by getting the victim to enter this information on a fake site that mimics a legitimate one. For threat actors, one such stolen credential can be the key to the entire security infrastructure of an organization.

While it's often attacks on major companies, like when GoDaddy suffered a phishing attack, that make the news, don't think small and medium size businesses are immune to these types of threats. In 2021, over 44.7% of small businesses and 49.2% of medium-sized businesses were subject to some kind of phishing attacks. Source: KnowBe4

Looking at these numbers, we can predict an increase in phishing attacks this year.

Identity theft to identity fraud

  • 1,291 breaches were reported by the Identity Theft Resource Center in the first three quarters of 2021. Source: Identity Theft Resource Center

The number of data breaches peaked in 2021. Yet, the number of direct individuals impacted has dropped. This proves that the attackers have shifted their focus from individual victims to businesses that store customer information, ensuring higher returns. Since personally identifiable information is readily available, there has been a shift from identity theft to identity fraud, which deals with the misuse of the stolen information. The rise in identity fraud has made end users wary of many new technologies, such as payment gateways and communication channels.

Starting from zero

Although cyberattacks and crimes have advanced exponentially, IT security concepts to combat them have also advanced. A star performer amongst these is the Zero Trust model. As the name suggests, this concept proposes a security infrastructure with zero trust: every access request will be time-bound and thoroughly verified before being approved. This model can combat various cyberattacks as static access doesn't exist in this model.

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