Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022.  Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Countdown to 2022: What’s Next for Cybersecurity?

By Dr. Carmit Yadin, ArcusTeam

With only weeks to go until the end of the year, 2021 has already witnessed more cyber attacks than any year in history, according to research from the Identity Theft Resource Center. With the unprecedented upswing in the release and deployment of multiple IoT devices in businesses and government, this fast-developing trend requires critical attention from all organizations with digital-based operations or assets. 

ArcusTeam outlines its cybersecurity predictions for 2022 and draws from experience in end-to-end attack surface management to help organizations proactively stay safe and ahead of the curve in the year ahead.  

WFH Overtakes Office

The Covid-19  pandemic has set the pace for digital migration and sped up many of the changes that we have seen starting to unfold in recent years. COVID-19 boosted the move to “work from home” (WFH) as many businesses were forced to close due to global lockdowns. Intermittent lockdowns meant that businesses were still required to adopt the WFH model, which is looking more and more like it is here to stay.  Even with the option of returning to the office, many businesses have elected to maintain a hybrid working model, with employees needing to work from home and use either their work or personal devices. Similarly, this new era has ushered in a whole new range of cybersecurity issues and exacerbated many of the threats that organizations have been coping with in the past decade as new IoT devices are being connected to corporate networks from everywhere and anywhere. IT organizations are struggling to control each device connected to the network because employees use their personal devices to connect. This effectively means that IT departments and MSSPs (Managed Security Services Providers) must deploy new tools to gain complete visibility over every component of the network, whether inside the perimeter or remote, and they need to effectively identify and mitigate threats. 2022 will see organizations needing to be increasingly mindful of how the WFH phenomena stands to impact their overall threat exposure.    

IoT Devices Rise Up 

The broad call for faster, user-centric service on all business fronts had already begun to accelerate the demand for IoT and connected devices well before COVID-19 came into play. The timely release of 5G networks, and the accompanying global increase in bandwidth capacity, has only amplified this call, sharply expanding the connectivity market. Ericsson Mobile predicts that by 2022, a whopping 29 billion connected devices will be actively deployed globally, with 18 billion of those devices relating to IoT. Because each new connectivity point can become vulnerable to exploitation, we foresee that the staggering increase in connected devices will further serve to expand the attack landscape in 2022. There are several threats targeting new vectors, such as firmware (Microsoft reported that 80% of businesses had experienced firmware attacks since 2020), to perpetrate breaches or ransom data. The abundance and variety of connected devices will assuredly give way to innumerable novel attack methods, making end-to-end anomaly detection a top priority for all enterprises in 2022. To preempt this risk, organizations will need to deploy tools that empower them to assess threats before they even purchase a device and prior to connecting to the network – in the precognitive phase. Such a tool will not only identify threats but also provide precise information about the impact on three levels: Device, Network, and Organization.   

MSSPs Take a Bigger Bite of the Cybersecurity Pie

In 2022, threats will continue to mount as connected devices are diversified and incorporated into additional supply chains. Cloud and IoT connectivity have created an opportunity for exponential growth. But as more devices access networks, enterprises find themselves ill-equipped to manage new threats introduced by each new device. Enterprises need to consolidate their risk assessment and intervention methods to account for every component of their infrastructure, a task that becomes more daunting as business operations become more digital and complex. MSPs (Managed Service Providers) and MSSPs have already taken a key role in consolidating and managing the IT of enterprises, small to large, and we expect that this trend will continue and grow significantly. Service Providers have the advantage of specialization, dedicated skills, and expertise, as well as access to a myriad of cybersecurity solutions to allow them to offer top-notch cybersecurity protection. To maintain this edge, MSPs and MSSPs must ensure they have the tools and solutions to secure the vast number and types of IoT devices that have become an integral part of every enterprise’s network. They must also ensure they offer the reassurance that any device connected to the network is safe by inspecting these devices prior to purchase and deployment. 

Beating the Odds: ArcusTeam Cybersecurity Tips for Resilience in 2022

To address all the changes and challenges that businesses will face in 2022, there are a range of technologies and techniques that can assist organizations in consolidating vulnerabilities and safely weather this upcoming year’s flurry of criminal cyber activity. Resilience and visibility go hand in hand. Evolving cloud and connected device ecosystems require elegant, agentless solutions. ArcusTeam’s dedicated cyber intrusion professionals have applied their expertise in threat detection and attack response to create the world’s first and only precognitive, full lifecycle attack surface management solution for IoT and connected devices – DeviceTotal. Its comprehensive capabilities make it an ideal attack surface management choice as it offers holistic visibility of every layer in your operations, while providing AI-backed alerts and threat prioritization to help your organization shore up vulnerabilities so that you won’t become another statistic in 2022.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cyber visionary who has spent the past decade working with leading high-tech companies in the cyber industry and uses her past experience as a CISO to best serve and understand the needs of ArcusTeam clients. Seasoned expert in business and marketing in relation to the world of technology.