Cybersecurity is one of the most significant concerns facing businesses and organizations due to the constantly changing cyber world, so we’ve rounded up some of the main challenges facing cybersecurity today, as well as those that are brewing for the future.
Growth of cybercrime
According to a report by Cybersecurity Ventures, global cybercrime costs are foreseen to grow by 15% per year from 2021 to 2025 and could reach $10.5 trillion per year.
Shortage of talent
There is a global cybersecurity workforce gap of 3.4 million and 70% of organizations have unfilled cybersecurity positions, according to the (ISC) Cybersecurity Workforce Study.
Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum, in conjunction with several companies, launched an online education platform aimed at individuals and organizations called Cybersecurity Learning Hub. The aim of this project is to train, and improve the skills of, security professionals so that more people can score quality jobs in this vibrant field.
Inclusion and diversity
Higher levels of inclusion and diversity are associated with greater innovation, performance and productivity, all being key for any organization’s growth. Needless to say, attracting underrepresented groups to cybersecurity can help lower the lack of skilled security professionals.
Remote and hybrid working
The digital transformation accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic has also made it clear to companies that they need to prioritize security. Organizations around the world with remote and hybrid work, can no longer rely solely on hardening their inner perimeter using their on-premises technology infrastructure.
Dark web
Monitoring the dark web helps cyber-defenders prevent attacks, understand how fraudsters and cybercriminal groups think, what vulnerabilities are being traded, what malicious tools the bad actors use to access organizations’ systems or to defraud people, or what information about an organization is circulating in these underground markets.
New cybercrime tactics
Trends such as the growth of new forms of social engineering force organizations to keep up with new and evolving attack scenarios and transmit this knowledge to their staff.
In a recent wave of attacks, a potential victim first received an email to learn, for example, that their subscription to a service is about to renew. In the call, the victim is tricked into installing malware on the system that can often spread to other machines.
Security in the crypto ecosystem
Consumers, businesses and governments are all finding new ways to use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies – and so are cybercriminals. Crypto scams and cyberattacks against various stakeholders in the crypto ecosystem have shown the vulnerability of the industry to hacks. It is no wonder that security-related challenges in the cryptocurrency world also often make headlines.
Ransomware
From 2020 to 2021 the number of ransomware attacks doubled and ransomware is still a scourge as we almost head into 2023. Indeed, if we look at the evolution of this type of threat over the last five years, it’s clear that there is still a long way to go before the ransomware business stops injecting money into the cybercrime industry.
The metaverse
Projections about the adoption of the metaverse show that by 2026, 25% of the world’s population will spend at least one hour a day in this virtual world. Therefore, security in the metaverse is a challenge for the future.
These shared virtual worlds for socializing, playing games and where various assets will circulate will undoubtedly give rise to a large number of attacks and scams. In addition, technological innovations are not always developed with security and privacy considerations in mind as the time to market takes precedence instead.
Education and awareness
A fundamental challenge that the industry will always face is better education and awareness of existing cybersecurity risks. With the high penetration of the internet and technology globally, the attack surface has expanded considerably in the past decade or two.
The above is by no means an exhaustive list of the challenges lying ahead for cybersecurity. However, even this high-level perspective shows that dealing with any of the challenges will require work and effort from many stakeholders – not only from the cybersecurity industry.
Sources:
- Welivesecurity.com
- Wire19.com
Image by David Bruyland in Pixabay
