The Future of Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity has existed since the creation of the first computer virus in 1971.

That was the “creeper” virus, a harmless application designed to replicate and move from computer to computer. New malware is created every day, however, by “threat actors” who attempt to develop new tools for often-nefarious purposes.

Cybersecurity professionals attempt to stop them, each investing to out-perform the other, in what has become a cat-and-mouse game. In the decades since, the sophistication on all sides in the game has increased.

“Cyberthreats have grown in scale and complexity; the attack surface – the breadth of exposed targets that an attacker might go after – has become exponentially larger with the birth of the Internet and now again with the birth of the Internet of Things,” said Eric Knapp, a chief engineer at Honeywell and expert in cybersecurity. “Meanwhile, the tools available to detect and prevent threats have likewise improved.”

Machine learning and AI are being used by both sides to continue this game of cat-and-mouse. Quantum computing will be next, exponentially elevating the capabilities of an attacker and a defender. So the cat and the mouse will keep getting better and faster, but the overall game isn’t going to change too much.

Here’s what the future of cybersecurity will look like.

1. Increased ransomware threats

Ransomware has been slowly growing into a dominant cyberthreat for several years. Ransomware has become more prolific and potent. As a result, it’s also become extremely effective. There’s a direct financial benefit to the groups behind ransomware campaigns. Ransomware is now being incorporated into larger attack campaigns, where adversaries steal sensitive information before encrypting a target’s data, and they also attempt to prevent data recovery practices by preemptively targeting backup and recovery tools. This trend will continue.

2. USBs will be a more potent threat

USB devices are everywhere. People are used to seeing them, using them, and owning them. Threat actors highly target USBs to penetrate industrial targets. In our recent USB threat report, we found that 19% of the threats detected were designed to leverage USB removable media in some way. USB threats to industrials more than doubled to 59 percent. There’s a tendency for many people to underestimate ‘malware’. To most laypeople, a ‘virus’ is the adware or spyware you are frustrated with on your personal computer. But malware can be much more serious and much more dangerous, and in some cases in OT this can translate to loss of view, meaning operators are blind to the process, and can not properly monitor conditions. That is very dangerous in high-risk industrial environments. The malware can also cause loss of process, either directly damaging or stopping a process. In our latest USB threat report, we saw the amount of high-impact malware doubled.

3. Secure remote access

The recent shift to remote working is causing the need to guarantee security of remote access. Companies must rethink their security plans around a highly distributed infrastructure. Meanwhile, attackers are evolving their approach, and they are finding ways to target employees who are working in isolation but still connected into the corporate network. In operational technology, the best practices that have existed for decades have prepared the cybersecurity industry for keeping critical tasks completely and physically separated. For example, a critical remote worker might have a uni-purpose laptop that is only capable of performing a single task and won’t have access to email, social media, or any public network connections at all.

4. Increased automation

The use of software and technology to automate business processes and functions to achieve organizational goals. The goal is to reduce the need for human intervention in repetitive and time-consuming tasks.

Process automation can help with:

• Efficiency: Fewer manual steps can lead to faster and more efficient business processes.
• Innovation: Freeing up human workers to perform higher-value cognitive tasks.
• Cost savings: Significant long-term savings.
• Accuracy: Improving accuracy by automating repetitive tasks that used to be subject to human error.
  
  

Some common processes that can be automated include: invoicing, sales orders, accounting reconciliation, data entry, system queries, payroll, employee or vendor onboarding, and staff terminations.

Some standard levels of automation include: In-app automation, Basic scripting, and Advanced Python automation.

 

When looking at the future of cybersecurity, there’s one major caveat to keep in mind: it could all change in a moment.

Year after year, the industry changes. Cyber threats evolve, and the tools that defend against them mirror those changes, evolving in their own right to better defend increasingly complex networks. Cyber threats that will remain an issue and certain attack tactics are bound to stick around—and that’s because they work.

These are the threats that experts believe would still pose a serious cybersecurity risk:

1. Ransomware

In 2023, the ransomware trend continued, and we anticipate the future of cybersecurity holds much of the same. As the number of threat actors in this realm increases, we’ve also seen notable increases in the frequency, scope, and volume of ransomware attacks.

MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment both suffered significant ransomware attacks in late 2023. While ransomware isn’t a new trend, what’s significant in these cases is who the victims were and how the attackers breached these networks.

Any company that holds and or moves large sums of money is a high-value target for cybercriminals. Knowing this, these organizations tend to have some of the best cybersecurity practices in place to help prevent, contain, and recover from cyberattacks. Yet, in roughly a month, the two casino giants were not only breached but had huge amounts of customer data stolen.

How did the attackers breach these networks? Caesars has said the incident started from a social engineering attack on an outsourced IT support provider. Scattered Spider, the cybercrime group taking credit for the MGM hack, has said they used social engineering as well, finding an employee on LinkedIn and calling the organization’s help desk to gain access to that employee’s account.

This brings us to our second attack tactic.

2. Social engineering

Although security solutions are more robust and powerful than ever, they still face one major challenge: human error. Users can and will continue making mistakes that lead to data loss. We’ll continue to see social engineering and phishing attacks, but we’ll likely see more complexity as social engineers make greater use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

After all, social engineering is all about crafting messages and sending legitimate-sounding emails that lure victims into clicking on a link. Instead of the typical “password reset” or “mailbox full” scams, AI will allow threat actors to become more sophisticated with their messages.

Cybersecurity roles still sit empty

The cybersecurity workforce gap continues to grow in 2023, with 71% of organizations noting they have been impacted by the skills shortage. The threat landscape, which continues to move at incredible speeds, has exacerbated this issue and caused burnout in the sector.

A study conducted by CRITICALSTART in mid-2023 found that 93% of organizations plan to offload some aspect of cyber risk reduction to security service providers within the next two years to help combat these issues.

To circumvent this long-standing threat, many businesses are working with managed security providers to avoid the expenses and stresses of hiring and managing an in-house team.

Third-party providers can act as a turnkey solution, taking on some (or most) of the cybersecurity responsibilities needed to keep an organization safe from compromises and cyberattacks.

The future of cybersecurity: Trends, threats, and more

Speculating on the future of cybersecurity is inherently challenging. From new attacks and techniques to technology and defenses, it’s always changing.

Still, our cybersecurity analysts have provided their best insights on what the future may hold, looking at this calendar year and beyond.

1. Prevention and preparedness will be more vital than ever.

If 2023 taught the cybersecurity industry anything, it’s that proactively planning for a cybersecurity incident or data breach is critical. We expect to see a greater emphasis on incident preparedness and response playbooks, not to mention greater investment in employee education and training at all levels.

2. Continued development of regulations

What’s more, evolving privacy and security concerns are expected to become far more urgent as laws come into full force. Beyond the European Union General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), additional state- or region-level regulations are being introduced at a rapid pace.

Plus, the greater scrutiny of cybersecurity controls could lead to further impacts for in-scope companies and organizations. Companies that work with personally identifiable information should prioritize compliance moving forward. Ensuring cybersecurity programs comply with existing or forthcoming regulations and align with accepted frameworks is and will continue to be a top-of-mind concern.

3. Cyber insurance will drive demand for cybersecurity assessments

The cyber insurance market has faced many challenges, most notably the difficulty of assessing and pricing cyber risk due to the lack of historical data, the dynamic and evolving nature of cyber threats, and the potential for systemic and catastrophic losses. We expect cyber insurance providers to require or incentivize their clients to undergo cybersecurity assessments as part of the underwriting process or the policy conditions. This could help the insurers to evaluate the risk profile and premium of the clients, as well as to provide recommendations and guidance for improving their cybersecurity.

These assessments can demonstrate a client’s compliance with the cyber insurance policy requirements or lower their premiums by showing their security maturity and use of best practices.

4. Cloud-based services: A growing target

Companies are using more cloud based services than ever before. Companies are moving some traditionally on-premises services like email and file sharing/storage to the cloud and there is an increased popularity of cloud-only collaboration and customer relationship management platforms. 

These services are generally set up for the optimal balance between security and productivity. While more secure settings are possible, they often require extra steps that few organizations have the time or technical know-hows. This is part of a greater issue regarding the shared responsibility model used by cloud service providers. In this model, both provider and user are partially responsible for the management and cybersecurity considerations of the service, the extent of which is dependent on the service type. 

However, organizations using these services may not fully understand where their responsibilities start and stop, leaving a gap in implementing security measures that make the organization more vulnerable than necessary. 

Dive deeper into the future of cybersecurity 

It’s hard to look at the calendar and make predictions about what the future will hold, especially in an industry as complex and fast-paced as cybersecurity. That said, for years we’ve seen the same patterns again and again. If threat actors are finding success by doing things one way, they’ll continue to do so. 

By taking the time to build up your cybersecurity knowledge, you can set your business up for lasting success as changes arise and new threats emerge. 

References 

1. The Future of Cybersecurity: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2024/01/29/the-future-of-cybersecurity-is-more-human-than-you-think/ 
2. Video on Cybersecurity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wzb94Jb54c 
3. Cybersecurity Predictions & Trends: https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/technology/digital-world/future-of-cybersecurity-predictions-trends/
4. Insights into the Future of Cybersecurity: https://www.elev8me.com/insights/the-future-of-cyber-security