Technology giant IBM said that many businesses will be breached at the start of 2022, which will also be marked by zero tolerance for trust in the security strategy of both government and the private industries.
In its Predictions for Cybersecurity in 2022 by Charles Henderson, head of IBM X-Force, Nick Rossmann, global threatiIntelligence lead, IBM X-Force, and Laurance Dine, globalpPartner, IBM X-Force incident response, the company enumerated 5 Predictions for Cybersecurity in 2022.
First, the IBM Predictions said distractions created during the holidays as economies transition to return to pre-pandemic in-office models and others extending their hybrid workforce will be an opportunity for cybercriminals to take advantage of without raising suspicions.
“Well into 2022 we will see breach disclosures and cyberattacks with initial compromise tracking back to early in the year,” said the IBM Predictions.
The technology firm also predicted that one business ransomware attack, will become another business's extortion.
According to the IBM Predictions, ransomware attacks will become more relentless in their quest to scale up revenue and do so fast. “In 2022 we will start seeing more and more triple extortion ransomware, whereby a ransomware attack experienced by one business, becomes an extortion threat for its business partner. Ransomware attackers won’t stop at extorting the victim organization for ransom, they will extort its business partners whose data it holds or business partners who cannot afford the supply chain disruption,” IBM said.
In addition, IBM said that supply chain attacks will become a top boardroom concern.
In 2021 the world felt the brunt of supply chain bottlenecks due to COVID-19 restrictions, and recognizing this, cybercriminals will seek to capitalize on heavy reliance on supply chains -- both on a consumer and enterprise level.
IBM noted that supply chains have many blind spots or cracks that attackers can take advantage. Ransomware attacks will be a threat not only to companies as individual entities but to their supply chains as a whole, making these types of attacks a top concern for the Board.
The rising reliance of blockchain will also become a cybercrime hideout, according to IBM.
With enterprises and consumers increasingly relying on blockchain for their supply chain management and digital transactions, IBM said attackers will turn to its legitimate use to stay under the radar for longer. “In 2022, we'll see blockchain become a more common "tool" used by cybercriminals to obfuscate their malicious traffic, avoid detection and extend attacker's stealth. This will make it increasingly harder for defenders to discern malicious activity on the network,” IBM said.
This development will ensue zero tolerance for trust. More and more businesses are realizing that to build customer trust they must establish zero tolerance for trust in their security strategy.
In 2022, IBM said, see government and private industry will start to scrutinize their trusted relationships more, and re-evaluate the "who, what, why" regarding access to their data.
Not only "auditing' of user access, but application access to data as well, IBM said.