Getting Ahead of Cybersecurity Challenges in 2022

2020 and 2021 saw more than their fair share of cybersecurity challenges, largely caused by the mass transition to remote work in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As individuals and businesses rushed to ensure that work continued remotely during lockdowns, hackers were devising ways to take advantage of the resulting vulnerabilities. These issues, coupled with technological developments like the rapid adoption of IoT, saw cyberattacks and cybercrime rates rise rapidly. Businesses and individuals need to understand and be prepared to adjust their cybersecurity strategies in the coming year to adapt to the coming cybersecurity challenges that await in 2022. 

Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware attacks increased in 2021 compared to the previous year. This trend is likely to continue in 2022 as organizations adopt hybrid working models and system vulnerabilities grow. Attackers use these vulnerabilities to, for example, inject malware into systems. The malware encrypts files on the network, rendering them unusable. Attackers then demand a ransom from the organization in exchange for keys to decrypt the files. Organizations have a duty to identify any vulnerabilities in their networks and find ways to mitigate them. Moreover, keeping operating systems updated, using multifactor authentication and enforcing password best practices can go a long way toward preventing these attacks. VPNs are also a great way to mitigate such attacks.

Supply Chain Attacks

Hackers continue to find new techniques to gain entry, and using supply chains is one such method that has proven successful for them. They take advantage of the complexity of software supply chains today as well as the fact that many software supply chains lack a software bill of materials (SBOM) that details the components and the provenance of each artifact. The absence of monitoring within a supply chain can enable attacks to perform malware injections and data breaches and then ask for a ransom from the affected organizations. In 2022, supply chain attacks are likely to increase. Governments are beginning to implement regulations and recommend best practices to stop these attacks, and are working with the private sector to identify global…