What Have We Learned About Cyber Security In 2022

The last two years have seen a quick shift to hybrid offices and remote work. According to the stats, hackers have also welcomed this shift. They have freely taken advantage of the gaps and vulnerabilities in business security.

Cyber-attacks are becoming more targeted, complex and frequent to all businesses, especially to small and medium-sized enterprises. According to a recent study, 43% of cyber-attacks are targeted at small businesses, of which only 14% are prepared to defend themselves.

Cyber security and hacking are the most important topics of 2022. To understand this more in-depth, let’s look at some of the recent trends you must have noticed.

Encouraged Cyber Crimes

It’s almost evident that certain governments are encouraging hackers to target some US-based businesses. They’ve chosen to look away also when hackers have targeted these businesses.

Nevertheless, the strife in Ukraine increases the fear of Russian attacks on the west, implying criminal action could be used as a tool of national invasion.

This is not to be taken lightly because this implies that someone who can hack your website can also gain access to more potent equipment and bigger budgets than before.

Growth in Ransomware Threats

In the first quarter of the year 2021, there were three times as many Ransomware attacks as in 2019. And according to recent research, it will only increase in 2022. Again, this can be blamed on the pandemic, and the increase in the activities carried out online and in digital environments.

The most effective way to tackle this threat is through education. The employees acquainted with the dangers of this kind of attack are likely to fall victim about eight times less.

Internet of Vulnerable Things

The number of IoT (Internet of Things), or the “connected devices”, has gone as high as 18 million in 2022. As a result, it has massively increased the number of potential access points for cybercriminals to access secure digital systems.

In 2022, IoT is also getting more and more sophisticated. We can expect a continuation and even an increase in the attacks on IoT. Edge computing devices are also vulnerable.

Needless to state the obvious, awareness and education are the two most valuable tools for protection against these vulnerabilities. Every device should be thoroughly audited before they’re connected to the network.

How do These Trends Affect Businesses?

Evidently, many more cyber security trends couldn’t be covered in this single article. Nonetheless, the ones discussed above are particularly striking since they directly point towards a couple of realities that are not acceptable to many of us.

Once you realize the danger, you can easily conclude that online data security will surely be the biggest concern for all kinds of big and small businesses in the coming years. This problem will not go away so quickly, and the companies that will ignore this will bear a heavy loss and struggle to keep up with the ever-changing business world.