Top 7 Cybersecurity Trends That Will Dominate the Market in 2022

Show:

December 15, 2021 Business

Irrespective of if your organization is small or big, cybersecurity is a critical aspect to keep an eye on for every business. You probably may ponder on if you should invest in this or not? The simple answer is: Yes! Since cybercrime has become a million-dollar concern today, mitigating cyber risks has become a top priority globally for most organizations and governments.

Cybersecurity is all about ensuring that the data of your company is safe from attacks and breaches from within and outside your work ecosystem. It consists of technologies, processes, practices, and structures to protect networks, programs, and data from unauthorized access or damage. One of the most important goals of every organization should be about ensuring confidentiality, data integrity, and availability.

Many organizations have already started considering the year 2022 as the year of the cyber pandemic. How could you prevent your businesses or organization from cyber-attacks? What is the latest concern or trend in the field of cyber security?

In this blog post, we’ve compiled a list of seven cybersecurity trends that you need to be prepared for in the upcoming years. These trends will help your business stay cautious and make informed decisions.

List of Cybersecurity Trends That Will be Dominating in 2021-22

1. AI Integration

With the increase in the number of connected devices, Internet of Things (IoT) applications are prone to various forms of malicious attackers. AI development has multiple influences on cybersecurity. AI integration has become the No. 1 cybersecurity trend since AI has been a helpful tool in ensuring data integrity by detecting threats at scale, like preventing Zero-day attacks.

Some interesting facts:

A study conducted by PwC found that 79% of respondents detected security incidents in 2021.
A study conducted by the University of Singapore reported that dealing with security breaches globally measures up to an expense of $500 billion.

The merging of AI with cybersecurity is driving a massive growth in the IT sector with enormous benefits. But it is important to be aware about the security concerns that already persist so that your business does not become a victim to it.

How Does AI Benefit Cybersecurity?

AI in cybersecurity systems work like our humanly immune systems. It helps to identify threats, self-learn from past security issues encountered and more. Here you can some of their major benefits:

Identification of threats: It means that more attacks, which is all about more feeds from the disconnected systems, and that should be analyzed.
Risk Assessment: AI determines the risk and level of security gaps that exist, then responds to the concerns individually.
Remediation: The AI system helps to collaborate better between different teams to remediate issues smartly.

AI Integration also helps to:

Provide threat intelligence.
Analyze data risk before they become an irreversible issue.
Make informed decisions on critical security concerns with the ability to immediately respond in real-time.

Technologies like AI, ML, and data visualization leverage a considerable volume of information over long periods. To put it simply, AI provides the intelligence to witness the necessary patterns in emerging data flows and network activity.

2. Cloud Security Threats

As per the report from IDC (International Data Corporation), the global cloud services market is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2024. It is important to be vigilant of the fact that the data flowing between organizations and cloud service providers may not always be secure. Any action taken may lead to potential security loopholes and malicious leaks of sensitive data to suspicious third parties.

Since the last decade, we’ve been witnessing various forms of cloud trends in the world of cybersecurity. Security concerns in this platform have also been growing rapidly in recent years.

Undeniably, the growth of the cloud is not just a trend but a potentially concerning area that you should pay attention to. Cloud migration arises new security challenges, threats as well as opportunities. Here are some cloud-based security threats that are emerging currently:

Reduced visibility and control
Incomplete data rollback
Misconfigured cloud storage
Vulnerable data leaks

Given the above, how can you proactively protect your business activities? Below are some tips:

Create constant data backups after every change implementation.
Keep access control in place for cloud storage.
Manage your traditional on-premises infrastructure.

However, keep in mind that, when technology involvement is more, it may also lead to raise in security issues and concerns.

It’s also notable to mention that cloud deployment models can help optimize security systems. It helps to leverage both on-premises solutions and the cloud power.

3. Threats via Home Offices

After the Covid-19 pandemic, the boundaries between homes and offices have blurred. Therefore, cybercriminals have realized that breaching home offices can be the easiest and accessible gateways into a corporate network. There’s no room for doubt that many home routers lack in advanced security features and firewalls. The cases are they use outdated versions as well. Here’re some of the recent statistics on cyber attacks…

In April 2020, Google blocked around 18 million daily malware and phishing emails related to coronavirus.
People who work remotely have increased the average cost of a data breach by $137,000.

Such stats clearly indicate that cybercriminals will be continuing to use home network devices as launching pads to attempt to gain access to targets. Also, we deny that the most extensive vulnerabilities will be exploited through home internet routers, and smart devices connected via IoT.

As more people work from home, cyber attackers are more likely to focus on PC vulnerabilities. During the pandemic, 80% of organizations allowed employees to use personal systems. However, approximately 70% did not have enough security configurations. Also, they lack malware protection. That’s why security attacks have been rising through remote work stations since the pandemic origin.

Moreover, hackers seek to exploit the increasing flaws in Windows 7 due to the fact that home users do not diligently update their devices. It is also predicted that at least one major corporation out ten could suffer a cyber breach due to a corporate employee’s home network.

4. Mobile Vulnerabilities

There has been a considerable increase in spear-phishing attacks. Google has registered approx. 2,145,013 phishing sites in Jan 2021 alone.

That being said, the cybersecurity concerns are increasing for mobile banking sectors since 2019. Photos, financial transactions, emails, and messages consist of confidential data that pose a threat to users individually in such cases. It is of great importance that we stress on protecting mobile platform applications and devices. Smartphone viruses or malware may dominate all other threats in 2022.

5. Data Breaches

Undeniably, data will continue to be a matter of concern for organizations across the globe. Whether it is about individuals or organizations, safeguarding digital data should always be the main priority. If there is any bug or flaw in the system/software, then it could be a potential for hackers to access sensitive information. Some cities have taken serious note of such concerns. The CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) was created on Jan 1st, 2020, to safeguard consumer rights in the California area.

6. Manual Intervention Error

One of the primary reasons for security threats to rise are human errors. Not all decision making is perfect. Any one loophole can bring down an entire organization and result in spending millions of dollars to retrieve stolen or misused data. In most cases, the development activities and practices followed by employees of any given organization directly or indirectly account as the reason for 34% of the total security attacks. To overcome such issues, make sure to create awareness to protect data in every possible way. All you need to create standardized security protocols.

7. Targeted Ransomware

Last but not least, another important cybersecurity trend that we cannot miss to mention is the targeted ransomware. Yes, that’s right! We have all heard the name. Ransomware can affect the system of any individual or industry as whole. Industries depend heavily on specific softwares catered to their needs for running their daily activities. That’s why these ransomware targets are more intent-focused. For instance, more than 70,000 medical devices are corrupted or breached every year. In 2020, there was a fivefold increase of cyber attacks in the healthcare sector globally.

Such attacks affect not only the organizations but have the potential to create nationwide security challenges in terms of technology. Here are some of the ransomware statistics of 2021:

Ransomware is one of the parts of all breaches, and it was doubled in 2021.
There have been more than 130 different ransomware strains detected since 2020.”

To prevent such attacks, organizations should keep an in-depth defensive security program in place. Since having multiple layers of defenses is a sure way to avoid it altogether, why not get started on it today?

Wrapping Up

You’ve just gone through the important cybersecurity trends you may have to watch out for in the upcoming years. All organizations need to keep in mind these trends and follow the best security measures to prevent them. It is forecasted that enterprises will be spending over $100 billion on their digital assets in the year 2022.

While infrastructure security is a pivotal part of almost every sector, it would be a great choice to embark on their learning curve in cybersecurity to become experts for tomorrow. It is not surprising that cybersecurity professionals are the highest paid in the IT industry.

The bottom line is that speeding up the security game is the best decision you can make. All you need is to have a team of skilled professionals in this rapidly evolving sector. However, you are free to choose which approach is best for you. It’s all up to you. You could leave it, adopt it or follow your own strategies.

So perhaps, next year, when you look at cybersecurity trends coming up, you’ll already have a checklist to follow.

About the author:

Hardik Shah is a Tech Consultant at Simform, a firm that provides custom software development services. He leads large-scale mobility programs that cover platforms, solutions, governance, standardization, and best practices.