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

Ransomware Deterrence Will Improve in 2022, As Zero Trust Investment Grows

By PJ Kirner, CTO and co-founder of Illumio 

In 2021, ransomware was one of the largest inhibitors of business success, costing organizations upwards of $590 million in the first half of 2021 alone. As we enter into a new year - yet another fraught with business uncertainty and newfound threat potential - here are a few of the key cybersecurity and ransomware trends that should remain top of mind for business leaders and security teams. 

Glass Half Full: Ransomware Deterrence Will Improve in 2022 

In 2022, there will be more conversations around "how organizations avoided ransomware disasters" due to organizations catching ransomware and malware earlier on in the pipeline. In 2021, the big conversation was around ransomware payments - and whether or not organizations should pay up if or when they (inevitably) fall victim to a cyberattack. In the coming year, as cybersecurity teams increasingly prioritize proactive strategies and security architectures like Zero Trust, better prepared SecOps teams will cause the conversation to shift from big breach headlines to individual success stories - where organizations contain breaches before they spread, thereby avoiding disaster.    

As Cloud Adoption Skyrockets, Risks Posed by Intracloud Environments Grow  

As organizations integrate their cloud and data center ecosystems or move to a hybrid cloud environment, the risks presented by this dynamic, complex IT landscape will become all the more prominent - making organizations even more vulnerable to attacks. Think of it this way: anytime there's surface between two distinct infrastructure types, understanding and securing the middle area between the two is a serious challenge. Right now, people are uncovering more risks in their intra-cloud environments than they initially realized, and this will continue to be a key concern in the new year.   

Collaboration Will Be Vital for SecOps Success  

One of the things that Covid-19 took away from us were simple and efficient ways to collaborate. Even in the new year, there will remain an ongoing collaboration challenge. Especially true for cyber tools and SecOps teams, products are going to have to find ways to facilitate and enable distributed, around the clock collaboration. Security teams are often intentional about sharing information, but this will become an even more prominent priority in 2022.   

Understanding Zero Trust: As Awareness Accelerates, Adoption (and Investment) Will Grow 

As an industry we're still working on educating people about what Zero Trust is - everyone's coming up with their own definitions and their own terms. According to Forrester, "Zero Trust is not one product or platform; it's a security framework built around the concept of ‘never trust, always verify' and ‘assuming breach.'" Despite the confusion, true Zero Trust adoption and awareness made a lot of progress this past year (case in point: the Biden Administration's "Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity", which recognized Zero Trust as a global cybersecurity best practice), and we'll continue to see widespread growth and acknowledgement of the framework throughout the industry in the new year.    

When it comes to Zero Trust adoption, there are currently two camps - those who claim it's too big and broad of an initiative to implement (leading to a piecemeal and unsuccessful adoption), and those who take an intentional, gradual, step by step approach. Those who will emerge as Zero Trust leaders (and remain resilient in the face of ongoing attacks in 2022) are those who stay the course - making incremental improvements and regularly putting Zero Trust best practices into place, while keeping the big picture in mind.  

In total, business resilience in 2022 will be determined by the state of Zero Trust adoption. As ransomware threats continue to evolve and proliferate, cloud and intracloud complexity concerns rise, and new threat vectors emerge, Zero Trust awareness, adoption, and investment will ultimately prove vital for ensuring long-term business success.  

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PJ Kirner, CTO and co-founder of Illumio 

As chief technology officer and co-founder, PJ is responsible for Illumio's technology vision and platform architecture. PJ has 20 years of experience in engineering, with a focus on addressing the complexities of data centers. Prior to Illumio, PJ was CTO at Cymtec. He also held several roles at Juniper Networks, including distinguished engineer focused on advancing Juniper's network security and layer 4-7 services plane. PJ graduated with honors from Cornell University.