Cyber Security Threats In 2022
The major cyber security threats and trends expected in 2022 will be influenced to a large extent by the continuing impact of Covid-19, as cyber criminals continue to take advantage of the poor level of awareness of cyber security by many organiations' employees.
This is influenced by remote working and an increasing reliance on e-commerce, mass mobile gaming and video meetings.
Across the board, authoritative cyber security researchers say that the threat of ransomware isn’t going away and they predict that the frequency, intensity and sophistication of ransomware attacks will significantly increase in 2022.
Since ransomware is counted amongst the most lucrative attack vectors for cyber criminals, this is hardly a surprising prediction. Companies that hold sensitive data or personally identifiable information are common targets for hackers. Businesses or organisations that are most vulnerable to cyber attacks include banks and financial institutions, healthcare organisations and any organistaion which holds sensitive data such as product concepts, intellectual property.
In 2022, we can expect criminals to use highly sophisticated malware hidden inside legitimate software updates, permiting attackers not only to exfiltrated targeted data but also spread the malware across a huge range of victims. Indeed, cyber crime costs in 2025 are expected to reach $10.5 trillion, up from $6 trillion in 2021.
Furthermore, cyber security in 2022 will be characterised by several major trends:
A continuing incline in malware cyber security threats - with ransomware being a particularly expected form of them. The frequency of ransomware attacks has increased from one every 40 seconds in 2016 to one every 11 seconds in 2021.
Increase in attacks via the Internet of Things (IoT) – connected electronic devices. While attacks via the IoT are already evident, 2022 will most probably see a rise in not only individual threats but also the further sophistication of their delivery methods.
Cyber criminals will move from identity theft to identity fraud - Criminal are accumulating personal identifying information, but they’re not using it to target consumers as much as they used to do. Rather, they’re using it in credential attacks on businesses. The increase in fraud will lead to another development in 2022, a behavior change as consumers withdrawing from certain kinds of online activity.
A rise in preventive measures, to better counter cyber attacks -2022 is the year that we’ll be seeing a rise in AI-based cybersecurity, with the technology becoming more and more sophisticated as machine learning develops to prevent all sorts of conducted attacks.
But it’s not all bad news. Those organisations which acknowledge the threat and subsequently implement the necessary training, technology and services are much more likely to stay safe.
Organisations need to be aware of the vulnerabilities and security risks this will expose their employers to and in the EU many more organisations have increased their zero trust budgets in 2021. Zero trust adoption will extend across even more private organizations and governments to counter the growing threat landscape.
Zero trust applies the principle of fundamentally not trusting anything on or off your network and deploys a “assume-breach” mindset.
Innovative cyber security vendor Darktrace has identified a growing trend of hackers targeting for backup servers in an attempt to deliberately disable or corrupt backup files by deleting a single index file that would render all backups inaccessible. Attackers could then launch ransomware attacks against the clients of the backup vendor, preventing recovery and forcing payment. In 2020, the most attacked industry across Darktrace’s global customer base was the financial and insurance sector, showing that cyber-criminals have shifted their focus over the last 12 months.
With more organisations unified in their approach to addressing cyber risks, the adoption of zero trust can provide greater visibility to improve an organisation’s overall security posture.
Currently, 31% of UK organisations are planning to invest more than $1m into security strategies in 2022. With businesses prioritising the likes of Cloud Security (59%), Endpoint security (50%), Advanced threat protection (38%) and the Security Operations Centre (37%).
The key thing for businesses cyber security is to make the transition from reactive to proactive behaviour.
Darktrace: Digital Inormation World: IDG Connect: Verdict: Business Chief: IT World Canada:
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