We live in an era of cyber threats. Hackers create havoc to show off their abilities, both flying solo or as a part of an organized crime syndicate. They utilize sophisticated stratagems against individuals, businesses of all sizes and sectors, governmental agencies, corporations, social media platforms – cyber risks are omnipresent.
The past few years have been eye-opening for many businesses across industries. Attacks grow in number and severity, claiming many established defense procedures are woefully insufficient. In this climate, with cybercrooks actively adopting new technologies and approaches to enhance their attacks, it is vital to turn to the most innovative solutions to weather this storm. With SOC Prime’s Detection as Code platform for collaborative cyber defense, threat hunting, and discovery that integrates with 25+ SIEM and XDR platforms, you get top-tier professionals and tools in your cyber defense corner. To soar to new cybersecurity heights in 2022, get equipped with an online Sigma translation engine Uncoder.IO, designed to instantly convert threat detection rules into 25+ most used formats.
By the year 2025, cybercrimes are expected to produce financial damage in record numbers – striking $10.5 trillion annually. The massive boom in the number of cyber-attack occurrences stresses the importance of keeping one’s finger on the pulse of cyber risks development. This article offers a rundown on the current situation and what to expect in 2022.
AI-Powered Cybercrimes
The AI in cybersecurity is expected to grow at a CAGR of 23.3 percent, reaching $38.2 billion by 2026. Increasing adoption of IoT and the expanding network of connected devices, alarming amount of cyber-attacks, growing worries about data privacy, and increasing vulnerability of Wi-Fi networks to threats are all major drivers of AI market expansion. As much as AI brings new values into cybersecurity, it also boosts its counterpart, the cybercrime industry. The influence of AI on cybersecurity is expected to broaden and empower the threat landscape, bring new risks, and change the nature of existing issues. Apart from creating brand-new and stronger attack channels, AI systems will also become more vulnerable to manipulation. Thus, artificial intelligence innovations are put to use both as instruments of attacks and targets to exploit.
Ransomware
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new horizons to a threat that has over the past few years grown into a cybersecurity pandemic – ransomware. Adversaries spare no time or effort honing their old tricks and coming with novel refined approaches to time-proven tactics such as double and triple extortion and multi-vector attacks. Besides, according to the current data, a lot is being done brushing up the processes within the Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) business sector, mobile ransomware, and attacks on the space systems, e.g., satellites. The number of businesses and organizations that fell victim to ransomware attacks globally has more than doubled over the past year as compared to 2020, and there are no signs this tendency is changing its course. A maelstrom of ransomware calls for the immediacy of action from cybersecurity experts, and there is nothing else left but to answer. Hopefully, augmented with more scalable solutions.
Remote Work
The distributed work environment brought about by the outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic poses new security challenges. In this environment, data security is paramount. When employers had to come to grips with new work requirements, they had to provide their employees with better cybersecurity coverage and ensure that the security hygiene in their companies suffices. Organizing remote access to systems and data forced new risks to the surface. Phishing and social engineering attacks, system breaches through password cracking, vulnerable apps and security gaps, identity fraud, ransomware attacks, theft, and more today are more tangible than ever before. In retrospect, the past few years have not been easy. However, thorough security makes a remote workflow continuous and adjusted, resulting in all sorts of benefits in the long run. Recommendations for good security practices to prevent remote work-induced risks include detailed risk assessments, additional security controls for critical functions, usage of vetted platforms, and employee awareness campaigns.
Nation-Sponsored Cyber-Attacks
In this day and age, the digital world is shaken by the surge in numbers of nation-sponsored attacks. The year 2022 has already showcased adversaries updating kits and refining their attack techniques. Hacking organizations like Korea-linked Lazarus and Russian nation-backed actors are striking aggressively, putting a number of key industries at risk and causing immense financial losses. With the pandemic ravaging the world, there are more vulnerabilities in a state system for cybercrooks to aim at, escalating the ongoing crisis to reach the levels of modern high-tech warfare.
Unequivocally, 2022 is going to be a very trying year for the cybersecurity industry. In an era when the world is driven by conflict, adversaries search for new ways of turning up the heat. It is only wise to apply the gains of previous years into successful new strategies to better prepare for the key risks of 2022. Stay alert, stay safe.
