Cybersecurity threats and solutions predictions for 2023

By Harikrishna Prabhu, COO, TechnoBind Solutions

What are the old and new technologies that the cybersecurity vertical will depend on?
How much data is being generated by the world population? Well by 2025 the world’s collective data is expected to reach 175ZB (Zetta Bytes). The responsibility of the leadership team of every organization is to secure the data that is being generated. But to plan the security process, the C-Suite and IT teams need to understand what security threats to expect and what solutions are best for their organizations.

The cybersecurity threats that are expected to cause problems in 2023
Increased threats against smart devices: Experts predict that by 2025 IoT devices worldwide will reach 75.4 billion and this naturally is a cause for threat actors to target smart devices. Smart devices range from watches to TVs and even household items connected via the internet, which are naturally vulnerable to attackers.

• Ransomware: According to some data ransomware has grown by 466% since 2019, and the ransomware groups are continuing to grow in volume and sophistication. The digital transformation era has helped companies and individuals evolve in terms of technology. However, the attack surface has also considerably increased.
• Crime-as-a-Service: Statista estimates that the cost of global cybercrime will reach $10.5 trillion by 2025. Crime-as-a-service allows bad actors to offer their hacking services to others for a fee. This has become a lucrative business for hackers.
  Data poisoning: Data poisoning is a new attack vector in corporate systems. In this, a malicious actor finds a way to inject corrupted data into an AI system. It will skew the results of an AI inquiry, potentially returning a false AI result to decision-makers. Cyber security professionals are still learning how to defend against data poisoning attacks in the best way possible.
• Deepfakes: Experts believe, deepfakes, left unchecked, are set to become the cybercriminals’ next big weapon in the coming years. Deepfake technology uses AI techniques to alter existing or create new audio or audio-visual content. Yet seven out of ten people were still unaware of deep fakes.To counter the rising cyber threats, companies need to focus on what would be ideal solutions in 2023
• Layered security approach: This prevents damage if and when attackers compromise credentials. Both to defend against and mitigate these attacks. Layered security places multiple security controls throughout the IT environment. If an attack gets by one security tool, others are in place to increase the odds that an attack will be identified and stopped.
• Zero-Trust Architecture: Zero Trust architecture follows a never-trust, always verify strategy to immediately block all inappropriate access. To facilitate this, Zero Trust architectures require high visibility and control over network traffic. It must monitor traffic sent through all parts of the environment.
• Penetration Testing: Also known as a ‘pen test’ is an authorized simulated attack performed on a computer system to evaluate its security. Penetration testers use the same tools, techniques, and processes as attackers. It helps find and demonstrate the business impacts of weaknesses in a system.
• Multifactor Authentication & 2FA: Multi-factor authentication / 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) is a layered approach to securing data and applications. This is because a system requires a user to present a combination of two or more credentials to verify a user’s identity for login.
• Updating software & training the staff: The IT teams must keep the software involving cybersecurity up to date to keep threat actors away. Along with this the staff also need to be updated in their cybersecurity training so that any internal breaches would be minimal to null.