Modern Cybersecurity Practices: Exploring Cybersecurity Strategies For 2022

The last two years have brought a lot of changes for everyone. Businesses have certainly felt the presence of change quite a lot. The advent of the pandemic did a lot to slingshot businesses into the digital world, sometimes whether they were ready or not. Transitioning into a digital space was necessary for many businesses, but with this move to digital options came a number of increased cybersecurity threats.

Online threat actors were evolving right along with businesses. The whole world of business moving to digital options all at once opened up a lot of vulnerabilities in security systems. The security infrastructure of small and medium-sized businesses exploring new digital options had a lot of glaring holes that were quickly exposed by cybercriminals.

The 2021 numbers for data breaches and the cost of cybercrime impacts are quite staggering. Even after 2020, the statistics for cybercrime in 2021 have blown past expectations. The effect of this global increase in cyber risks can be felt in all aspects of business management today. Many business runners view cybersecurity as the number one priority in business operation. This has meant significant investments in cybersecurity consulting services. In 2022, security investment is going to be a priority that cannot be ignored.

2022 is looking to have the opportunity to be a growth year. Small and medium businesses, especially those who have weathered the initial storm, are now poised to bounce back and accelerate growth for the coming year. To facilitate this growth, the successful allocation of resources into security threat management and defending a company’s digital infrastructure will be necessary for any business going forward.

Let’s take a deeper look into some of the growing security concerns for 2022, and explore some of the newest strategies being used to keep digital businesses and marketplaces secure and thriving.

Personnel Can Be A Large Vulnerability

When it comes to security risks, data breaches are almost always the biggest culprit. When it comes to data breaches, human error and vulnerability are usually at fault. Ransomware attacks and phishing scams are among the most common attacks used by threat actors. This is due to the fact that these attacks offer a bit of a smokescreen for cybercriminals and kind of let them attack from the shadows with little risk to themselves. In 2021, ransomware and phishing attacks increased in number, scope, and payoff quite substantially, and this growth should definitely be expected and prepared for in 2022.

This vulnerability can be felt drastically with organizations that employ large numbers of workers or deal with large numbers of human interactions. The one silver lining is that when addressing this area of cybercrime, the human element being at play can mean that personal security measures for employees can often mitigate a lot of cyberthreats.

People make mistakes. People can forget to update software systems or make mistakes with password management and authentication processes. There can be a lot going on with many employees, and every interaction or step can mean leaving a potential vulnerability for threat actors to explore.

Proper education and oversight can help reduce this employee threat factor, and making some of these training considerations should be prioritized for 2022. Regular employee training can reduce phishing vulnerabilities, and well-organized and implemented digital hygiene measures can be a vital piece of a business’s cybersecurity infrastructure. Simply updating passwords and storing them securely can go a long way. Keeping up to date with security tools such as single sign-on password managers can help keep things organized and secure. Protecting waves of sensitive information is important for any enterprise password vault. Proper oversight measures are definitely necessary. The more people being managed, the more oversight is necessary to ensure proper cyber protection.

Cybercrime Pays And Money Talks

There is a reason cybercrime is on the rise so much. Cybercrime pays. The profitability of cybercrime is increasing as well. The web offers many opportunities for malicious threat actors. Cybercrime is possible from anywhere in the world. This gives these criminals a unique layer of protection for digital crime.

Cybercrime can take on many forms. From ransomware-as-a-service threats to inside security leaks, cybercrime is always about making money. When money is the motivation, businesses need to be vigilant against threats both from the outside and from within. When sensitive information becomes valuable, inside risk increases.

The Costs Of Cybercrime Are Still On The Rise

The sad fact is, there really isn’t an end in sight. Cybercrime is only increasing. 2020 saw so many businesses catapulted into the digital beyond in an instant. Most companies were going to be transitioning into a more digital age over the coming decade, but the advent of the pandemic seemed to accelerate this transition and condense it into essentially a few months.

All these changes and evolutions to business operations have poked so many holes in security systems. Remote work has left significant vulnerabilities. Both data breaches and ransomware attacks are statistically more prevalent than ever as well as more profitable per crime. There is no sign in sight that digital growth and transition are slowing down, and every new day in digital advancement means a new day in the advancement of cybercrime. Cybersecurity can attempt to keep up, but these growing threats can spin out of control if not carefully addressed in the future.

Versatility Is The Key

The only way to stay secure is by staying up to date and adapting to new threats. Versatility is everything right now. Adopting new security measures, evaluating threats associated with new technology, and always evolving is the only path to avoiding serious cybercrime impact on a modern business. Business evolves and so to does cybercrime. Stay vigilant.