Most important cybersecurity trends for 2023

Cybersecurity has recently moved from the IT department to the boardroom. As attacks have multiplied so as their potential consequences, both legal and in terms of loss of consumer trust. This is why protecting systems has become a priority at every organizational level.

This is why cybersecurity trends also grow consistently and could make or break your system’s protection. If you want to know the main trends for 2023, keep reading this article.

Adoption of Zero Trust network

Zero Trust is neither a product nor technology but rather an attitude. "Never trust: always verify" is the guiding philosophy of Zero Trust. This mantra can protect organizations from cyberattacks through identity-centric business and architectural security solutions.

Core principles of a Zero Trust network include identity and access management, protecting network endpoints, securing the network through micro-segmentation, and implementing threat protection to prevent security threats and attacks. This is also an efficient method for minimizing data loss, preventing breaches, and allowing business users to communicate with any application from any device in a safe environment.

Adoption of security solutions with SOAR

SOAR systems (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) let businesses collect inputs monitored by the security operations team. Supporting the investigative process, SOAR capabilities may automatically collect indicators of compromise (IoCs) from external threat intelligence systems, perform sophisticated threat analytics, and award reputation scores depending on severity.

These types of systems also let the analyst make educated conclusions about the danger by providing additional context. Exterior emerging threat intelligence feeds, endpoint security software and other third-party sources are parsed by SOAR to obtain a complete view of the network's internal and external security landscape. A SOAR system's foundation is absorbing alerts, automating threat responses, and resolving security events using advanced threat analytics insights. Implementing this technology could dramatically improve your security posture, which is crucial in today's more volatile cybersecurity environment.

Supply chain attacks

Supply Chain Attacks have grown tremendously in the past years. In this scenario, attackers access company networks via vulnerabilities or compromised devices on the web of a third-party or partner who is also part of the value chain or supply chain. Cybercriminals are armed with increasingly complex tools and strategies to circumvent security safeguards and best practices, even though high-profile attacks have made businesses more alert and attentive than ever. Enterprises must consider more proactive ways to track and consistently evaluate user activity to discover questionable patterns or accesses.

IoT Threats

Internet of things (IoT) risks emerge when adversaries examine devices for weaknesses and attempt to connect through non-standard ports. With the non-standard port technique, the attacker may try to establish connections using uncommon ports or confuse the protocol to circumvent standard ports.

In a basic network architecture, the attack surface is limited to the typical access points to corporate systems; however, in an IoT network, the attack surface expands, resulting in more vulnerabilities. More specifically, the Internet of medical things (IoMT) or IoT in healthcare consists of gadgets that can link to healthcare organizations' IT systems. These monitoring devices may be sensor-based or remote, such as wearables. Criminals can acquire access to patient data through various vulnerabilities and entry points made available by patients' expanding usage of these devices. This makes continuous monitoring of these endpoints a top priority for all companies.

Ransomcloud attacks

There is no foreseeable conclusion to ransomware attacks. Cybersecurity Ventures projects that ransomware will cost $265 billion yearly by 2031. Additionally, ransomware has penetrated cloud systems. Malicious or phishing emails are frequent attack vectors for ransom-cloud attackers, who target cloud-based mail systems such as Office 365 using popular techniques such as file sync piggybacking.

Here, the attacker sends a phishing email with an attachment that, when downloaded, installs ransomware on the victim's PC. This malware appears to the user as an innocuous pop-up. The malware spreads itself when clicked, granting the threat actor access to the network. When a user conducts a file synchronization transaction with the cloud, the ransomware will 'piggyback' on the file synchronization service and assist the threat actor in infiltrating the cloud environment.

Attacks against operational technology

The software or hardware mechanisms that monitor and detect changes in industrial equipment, systems, and processes constitute operational technology. Industrial control systems (ICS) are a key component of operational technology (OT) and the latest target of cybercriminals. Here, actual physical harm, not simply data security, is the primary cause of concern.

Attacks against mobile devices

Malware that targets mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and wearables, is known as mobile malware. During the first few months of 2022, mobile malware cyberattacks increased by 500%, with Android devices being the most popular targets. Since spoofs are more challenging to detect, mobile phones have become an easy target for attackers as their importance has increased. Significant threats to mobile devices include malicious applications and websites, ransomware, phishing, Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks, sophisticated jailbreaking and rooting techniques, and device and OS vulnerabilities. Enterprise mobile security solutions and comprehensive staff training programs have the power of educating employees on device security and helping them keep one step ahead of attackers.

Rise of automotive hacking

Modern vehicles are equipped with software that creates seamless connectivity between the driver's cruise control, engine timing, door lock, airbags, and advanced driver assistance systems. These automobiles connect through Bluetooth and WiFi, exposing them to several vulnerabilities and hacking threats.

The usage of microphones for eavesdropping or gaining control of the car is projected to increase in 2023 as the number of automated vehicles increases. Autonomous or self-driving vehicles employ an even more complicated process requiring stringent cybersecurity precautions.

Potential of artificial intelligence

With the introduction of AI across all market areas, this technology, combined with machine learning, has significantly improved cybersecurity. In the development of automated security systems, natural language processing, facial identification, and autonomous threat detection, AI has become indispensable. However, it is also used to construct intelligent malware and attacks that circumvent current data security standards. AI-enabled threat detection systems can forecast new attacks and immediately alert administrators of any data breach.