The Adoption of Cybersecurity Grows

A dramatic spike in ransomware and other high-profile cyberattacks has made it obvious that more cybersecurity measures are needed by leaders from government, and both for-profit and non-profit organizations alike. Over the past few years, leaders have made security a higher priority within their institutions, which led to a surge in spending on security products and services. Cybersecurity is no longer just an issue for IT departments.

A top priority will be increasing public awareness of cybersecurity threats

According to Cisco's 2021 Cybersecurity Threat Trends report, phishing scams targeted employees rather than security systems in 2021 for more than 80% of all cyberattacks. Remember: Organizations are only as strong as their weakest link.

Organizations are only as strong as their people. We are all responsible for reporting cyberthreats and identifying them. In 2022, business leaders can identify and mitigate vulnerabilities by arming employees, customers, and partners with information.

Educating the public about cybersecurity can combat digital threats like social engineering. Awareness campaigns like Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October, will become more and more common—and necessary—this year as cyberattacks proliferate.

Pentesting will integrate with Organizational Technology Stacks

According to a recent Marqual IT Solutions study, the global pentesting market is expected to reach $3.1 billion by 2027. The importance of pentesting cannot be understated, but many organizations only perform pentests when they are needed, as traditional pentesting is often costly, inefficient, and difficult to implement.

Pentesting-as-a-service (PtaaS) offers organizations a quick, cost-effective way to remain compliant between compliance checks. With its speed, affordability, and accessibility, PtaaS will gain significant momentum by 2022. PtaaS will be synonymous with cybersecurity precautions as cybercrimes increase in frequency and severity.

Cyberattacks will increasingly target crypto currencies

In the world of cybersecurity, cryptocurrency plays an instrumental role. In addition to more traditional loot, such as proprietary data or fiat currency, cryptocurrencies become more lucrative targets as more legitimate firms embrace them. The anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies makes it easy for hackers to steal their coins and other assets without being detected. Hackers can take advantage of investors' ignorance to steal millions from unwitting victims as well, since many consumers are new to this space.

However, cryptocurrency isn't the only digital asset that's on the rise; virtual real estate and NFTs are equally attractive. Even though the cryptocurrency market is experiencing extreme volatility, its anonymity will ensure its relevance to hackers worldwide by 2022.

The popularity and profitability of ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) will increase

Because there is substantial money to be made in RaaS, many criminal organizations have decided to launch their own RaaS operations following the high-profile Conti Ransomware attack last year. Companies aren't using proactive security controls, which will make RaaS successful in 2022.

RaaS threat actors are extremely dangerous because their methods simply work. Cybersecurity is an afterthought for most companies today. Cybercriminals will exploit those fundamental weaknesses because they aren't built with security in mind.

There will be an increase in nation-state sponsored attacks

As a result of recent state and non-state cyberattacks, we have seen the rise of both small and large cyberattacks, including what we are seeing now between Russia and Ukraine. In addition to seeking monetary reward, non-state actors often seek notoriety as well as organizing and funding these attacks. In addition to providing information, access and financial means for those willing to buy such assets, these malign parties are part of a larger ecosystem. Cybersecurity threats in 2022 will continue to increase due to increased efforts to leverage this for financial gain.

A widespread adoption of policy-as-code

In 2022, more business leaders will realize that security will benefit their entire organizations if it is integrated into every aspect of the development process. Code must be developed with the current rules in mind instead of being written then checked to see if it passes policy checks. This will help ensure that code is compliant and highly secure.

When policy-as-code is widely adopted, organizations will be able to more easily code and patch and be protected from new threats as they emerge. Additionally, compliance testing will become much easier since all development teams will be working with the same set of policies.

Cybercriminals aren't slowing down anytime soon. In order to keep their digital assets secure in 2022, business leaders need to be aware of these six cybersecurity attack vectors.

Informational Source: Gartner & Crowdstrike

Robert

McVay

Senior Consultant, Information Security Services

United States

Contact Robert

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