With a new year comes new predictions for what may lie ahead in the tech and cyber space for 2023. 2022 became a record-breaker for the sheer volume of phishing scams, cyberattacks, data breaches and crypto heists. There was also a rise in hacktivism cases where state-sponsored cyber legions disrupted critical infrastructure and services, defaced websites, and stole the information of millions. It's not hard to imagine that 2023 will top records in cyber crime. Here are six trends we can expect in 2023.
Greater Privacy And Regulatory Pressures
Governments worldwide will increase efforts to protect citizens' data privacy. Gartner, Inc. predicts that by 2023, "65% of the world's population will have personal data covered under modern privacy regulations, up from 10% in 2020." These efforts will likely continue to increase in the coming years, as the importance of data privacy becomes more widely recognised.
Zero-trust Replaces VPN
Remote working trends are expected to continue, and with that comes the need for secure networks to connect remote employees to company resources. Virtual private networks (VPNs) have traditionally been used for this purpose, but they may not be able to meet the scalability demands of a large remote workforce. Additionally, VPN technology itself can be vulnerable to cyberattacks. To address these issues, zero-trust networks are becoming increasingly popular and are predicted to completely replace the VPN model by 2025. Zero-trust is a multitiered approach that is both scalable and highly secure. It is based on the concept of "never trust, always verify," which means that just because users can be identified and authenticated, they must not be granted blanket access to all resources. Instead, users are continuously validated, reassessed, and reauthorised using multiple authentication methods.
Threat Detection and Response Tools Go Mainstream
Inevitably cyber security hacks and attacks will continue to happen and become more advanced, with the leading way to minimise the impact of an attack being to detect it quickly and to take swift actions to stop it. Threat detection and response tools, such as endpoint detection and response (EDR), extended detection and response (XDR) and managed detection and response (MDR), can help with this by analysing data using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to identify unusual patterns or advanced threats. These tools can also leverage threat intelligence and advanced file analysis to detect and block threats that are designed to evade traditional defences.
Increased Demand for Third-Party Risk Management
It is predicted that by 2025, 45% of organisations will experience a cyber attack on their software supply chain. Many cyber actors try to bypass the sophisticated defences of large enterprises by targeting SMEs that may have access to the same information but may not have the same level of protection. Attacks on SMEs have been on the rise in recent years, and this trend is expected to continue. To address this risk, more and more small-to-medium organisations are turning to third-party risk management to ensure that their supply chain partners are also following best practices for cybersecurity.
Increase in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are becoming increasingly vital tools for cybersecurity professionals. These technologies enable real-time threat identification and response and can also be used to improve overall security posture. However, it's important to note that AI can also be weaponised and used in an adversarial fashion against a desired target.
Cloud Security Solutions will be in High Demand
As organisations continue to migrate their operations to the cloud, the demand for robust cloud security solutions is on the rise. This shift in the industry is expected to lead to a growth in the number of cloud security providers, as well as the introduction of more advanced features and integrations by existing players in the market.
