Cybersecurity in 2022 is more challenging than earlier years. As 2021 winds down, it’s time for cybersecurity experts to toss their runes and forecast what’s in store for consumers and practitioners in the coming year. Many experts believe that cybercriminals will move from identity theft to identity fraud
Bad actors 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.
It is likely that many consumers will withdraw from certain kinds of online activity. The continued improvement in ease and quality of phishing attacks will force some consumers to rethink online purchases and change communication habits for fear of falling prey to perfectly spoofed emails, websites or text messages. Some people are likely to disengage entirely from emails because they believe the risk is too great.
It is also predicted that malware will level off as a root cause of data breaches in the coming year and revictimization rates will grow.
Consumers victimized by online fraudsters multiple times continued to grow in 2021 and that trend will continue in 2022. Single incidents that target multiple individuals or organizations will impact greater numbers of victims across communities and geographic areas. Social media account takeover, in particular, will leverage the followers and individual networks to create new chains of victims.
Another attractive area for digital bandits in the coming year will be cryptocurrency scams, according to Lookout, a San Francisco-based provider of mobile phishing solutions.
As cryptocurrency accounts are not government-insured like U.S. dollars, and cryptocurrency payments are not reversible, the risk to consumers is particularly high.
Another development in 2022 will be the greater use of home networks as infrastructure for hackers. A home network is much easier to infect with malicious software than a professionally secured enterprise IT environment. With processing power and bandwidth connectivity in residences increasing, home networks will become more attractive to bad actors.
On the enterprise level in 2022, securing hybrid clouds will become a C-suite imperative.
He also predicted that Zero Trust networks — which require continuous authentication and monitoring of network behavior — will saturate hybrid cloud security infrastructures.
The tradition of having a single identity or security administrator is rapidly diminishing. No longer will anyone be able to say security ‘is not my job.’ Developers, in particular, will have to wear multiple hats as the tech skills shortage intensifies.
