Cybersecurity trends to be aware of in 2022

The cybersecurity industry is changing and offers greater protection against malware attacks and data hacking attempts with the advent of new technologies.

Cybersecurity threats are on the rise due to the increasing use of data across all industries. Hackers are always trying to hack into networks and systems. Agencies are doing everything they can to stay ahead of such infiltration attempts. Below are some of the major changes expected to impact the industry over the next few years. They also help it combat the threat of data theft, and information snooping.

1) Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (ML), This combination of AI/ML has been instrumental in strengthening cybersecurity across all industries and business types. While AI helps identify abnormal usage patterns, ML allows machines to imbibe these patterns in order to block hackers and malware attempts. These technologies complement each other well and can be combined to help organizations combat cyber threats.

2) Mobile Hacking: Mobile devices are becoming the primary target for data hackers. Mobile hackers are focusing their efforts on mobile devices, which can contain sensitive information such as personal information, bank details, and images. Cyber agencies have refocused their efforts to find solutions for smartphones in light of this increased threat perception. We can expect significant developments in mobile security over the next few months.

3) Distributed Cloud Technology Cloud storage quickly became a popular choice for companies across a broad range of industries. The technology allows firms to outsource their storage needs to large data companies. This saves valuable resources for all stakeholders. Over the years, however, centralized cloud storage systems have become more vulnerable. These centralized cloud storage systems have been a target for hackers and companies have redoubled their efforts to develop distributed cloud storage technology. This idea is intended to reduce hacking threats by spreading cloud storage around the globe. Even if one data storage has been hacked, the rest will remain secure and safe. This technology is quickly catching up to industry leaders. Companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Microsoft are all working at an incredible pace to improve their technology for distributed cloud storage systems.

4) Targeted Ransomware Attacks: Many tech enthusiasts are tempted to engage in ransomware attacks illegally because they can make a lot of money quickly. Experts noticed that these ransomware attacks are becoming more targeted, with many choosing IT and healthcare as their targets. Ransomware attacks are particularly dangerous to the healthcare industry. In 2017, WannaCry ransomware attacked the UK's National Health Service (NHS), causing severe damage and disruption to the entire system. It is necessary to transform the security of data networks in order to prevent targeted attacks. This will require significant investment from all parties, but every dollar that is spent on strengthening the IT infrastructure of companies pays off.

5) Country-Backed cyberattacks. Countries around the world are increasingly using cyberattacks to assert their strategic dominance. Cyber attacks are now a key tool in governments' strategic arsenal due to the raging geopolitical tensions among nations. A large number of cyberattacks will be carried out across the globe in 2022. This is a time when elections will also take place.

6) 5G Technology Rollout: Experts warn that 5G will make data speeds even faster, which could increase cyber attacks against users of the technology. IoT devices will be at the forefront of cyber attacks as they are vulnerable to hackers due to their interactions with other gears. The technology's emerging nature means that attackers could easily exploit its vulnerabilities once it is available for commercial use.

In the past few years, cyber threats have seen their nature and methods change significantly. Attacks are more targeted, faster, and more concentrated in their geographic locations. The entire IT industry must work together to defeat the new-age hackers. To counter cyber threats, all stakeholders need to work together in a collaborative manner. Policymakers are equally important as they can aid the industry in fostering innovation and bringing new solutions onto the market at a faster rate and with greater agility.

Are visuals increasing the risk of cybercrime for businesses?

Companies must work harder to provide captivating visual material in the world of modern business if they want to stand out from the competition. For instance, social media marketing was originally thought to be a simple way for businesses to reach more people, but marketing is now much more competitive than simply posting a post and hoping it goes viral.

Businesses stand out online thanks to entertaining short-form content and eye-catching images, but it's crucial to maintain awareness of your cybersecurity and data protection. For instance, an apparently innocent workplace video posted on social media may unintentionally reveal crucial business information in the backdrop.

Making life as tough as possible for thieves is essential since cybercrime assaults on organisations might originate from many facets of contemporary society. Let's examine how a company's visual marketing may make it more susceptible to cybercrime and how to be vigilant about the risks.

What are company visuals, exactly?

Organizations and brands may use visual marketing as a potent tool to present their goods and services to a global audience. Visuals may take many forms in the era of digital marketing, including images, videos, and infographics. With the help of these diverse visual content formats, businesses and brands can quickly and effectively express a complicated tale.

Video is currently one of the most significant digital marketing mediums, supporting virtually any sort of content, from social media to TV advertising. The appeal of creating social media material, whether through photography or video, is that everyone can do it. In fact, social media content production is so well-liked that it is even included as one of the top dream careers for children.

However, in terms of marketing, businesses must make an effort to get their graphics right by being true to their brand, producing high-quality photos or videos, and selecting the appropriate audience. Failure to do so could be seen as a missed chance to benefit from strong marketing imagery.

Be cautious before posting

Before uploading a photograph online that was shot from their premises, businesses of any size should prioritise cybersecurity. Sharing your location through geotagging may seem innocent, but doing so puts individuals and their premises or properties in danger.

Sadly, some have learned that purposefully geotagging while on vacation alerted would-be thieves to abandoned premises. The same is true for businesses, where it's possible that your team is having fun on a team outing and tweeting about it on social media. A criminal may get interested if you advertise that your building may be vacant.

The position of phones and tablets may be tracked, and when photos are taken, the device's location can be tagged using satellites. This happens if you choose to let the gadget access to your location, and it's really simple to turn off. When developing a visual marketing campaign, businesses may decide to keep this location service enabled if they have a real store where they want to send customers.

Some businesses, however, might not want to disclose their precise operation locations to the public outside of their main office address. It only takes turning location sharing off in the specific app that utilises the camera to prevent this.

Revealing private details

Because social media enables people to share photos and videos of their life with friends, family, and followers, people adore it. However, there are dangers present. People who post images of their opulent homes, for instance, may unintentionally be tempting criminals to take a closer look. Someone who reveals their lavish lifestyle or way of life online without making it private may unintentionally become a target for crooks.

The same is true for images captured inside a company. Before publishing photographs online, a business should check any material that can be regarded as sensitive. Employees providing information about their actions might result in corporate espionage, allowing your top rivals to gain additional insight into how your business operates. Be cautious while sharing information with others since everything you give, from the places you travel to the clients you deal with, might be important information in the hands of criminals.

The good news is that efforts to protect personal information are still being made in the US (with a number of new state privacy laws) and throughout the world, as "Europe continues to promote and discuss measures that focus on privacy, platform regulation, and competition." These continuous tactics, together with business-friendly efforts that can monitor and develop fresh ideas for greater privacy and data security, will assist to stop dangerous and unlawful material, as stated in Tripwire's 2022 first quarter Privacy Update.

Online live streaming

When developing marketing images, businesses must adapt to the times, which is why they could decide to live stream a promotional event. It is a fantastic approach to developing a video that has a more intimate feel than work that is heavily edited, manufactured, and obviously corporate.

Live streaming enables brand employees to demonstrate their expertise or to show fans what they are up to behind the scenes. This approach has gained popularity among digital marketing professionals and aids in creating hype for events like product launches. This is demonstrated by the fact that 73% of B2B companies who use live video to reach their target audience report favourable ROI.

However, there are dangers for businesses that share live video material with their social media followers. A live broadcast necessitates an internet connection, making a business exposed to assaults like IP leaks and DDoS attacks. Additionally, there is a chance that someone will screen capture your work and claim it as their own, and crammed chat rooms provide fraudsters and other bad actors a chance to connect to malware.

Using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to hide your IP address and using strong passwords to prevent brute force assaults are two common defences against these attacks.

The temptation for many businesses is to leave cybersecurity in the hands of the IT department. However, given the significance of data protection, businesses must employ the best cybersecurity personnel available. This could include getting in touch with a third party, but it's a reasonable investment when weighed against the cost of a data breach and associated regulatory fines, which might total several million pounds.

Copyright your images

Millions of people may view and share the stuff you produce and publish online. It's crucial to keep in mind, though, that you are the author of that material, and without your team's expertise and originality, it wouldn't have been a success. You should safeguard your photographs, and there are several steps you can do to lessen the possibility of unauthorised usage of your intellectual property.

First, think about putting a watermark on the picture. This frequently takes the shape of the discretely placed white or transparent text on the primary image. It can stop someone from just stealing your graphic material and utilising it for their own marketing campaigns. Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, anybody who removes this watermark may be held accountable for damages.

Additionally, you might want to add copyright information to the image's metadata or use sophisticated barcoding, which leaves an unmistakable, invisible fingerprint on the picture that can be used to identify you. Adding additional safeguards can strengthen your copyright defence and safeguard your intellectual property.

Cybercriminals will use original and cutting-edge techniques to break into a corporation. This also applies to the actual world, where robbers will utilise data gleaned from internet photographs to commit crimes against a company. It's crucial to be careful of the videos and photographs that your company publishes online. What you see might not be what a thief is searching for.

Source: https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-data-protection/visuals-making-businesses-more-vulnerable-cybercrime/?web_view=true

Top 10 Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities

In 2020, when most of our work is on digital devices, people are still ignorant about their cybersecurity. Most of the organizations have no protocol for avoiding cyber incidents or dealing with them effectively. This makes a large percentage of organizations vulnerable to all kinds of cyber threats. A cyber threat is typically when someone can harm your IT system or network assets. A threat will be possible only when your organization or network has a weakness that cybercriminals can target. And no doubt in 2020, the cybersecurity protocols are relevant to one’s growth, reputation, and funds, and having reliable cybersecurity strategies requires a professional set of people and technology that can prevent and prepare you for any cyberattack that can occur in your organization.

Digital Insights offers managed security services with our Security Operations Centre (SOC), WatchTower365, providing 24x7 network monitoring, cyber threat hunting, incident response, EDR and so much more for complete network security. It is more important now than ever to secure your data with employees working from home. WatchTower365 is available as SOC as a Service and SOC in a Box. To find out more, please visit www.dicuae.com/soc or contact us via 971 4 2415888 / info@dicuae.com

Here are the top cybersecurity vulnerabilities that your organization should avoid:

1# Malware

New malware files are created every day and they are often the older files with a few changes to make them unrecognisable to antivirus software.

The most common types of malware that your organization can be vulnerable to are:-

1. Ransomware - These types of malware are designed to encrypt the victim’s sensitive data, making it inaccessible to the owner and then an ultimatum is prompted, demanding payment in return of the inaccessible data. And if the ransom is not paid then the data is deleted.
   

2. Trojans - It is a kind of a delivery system for malware. A trojan is any piece of malware that looks like a legitimate program that tricks users into downloading and installing it on their computers. This type of malware is perfect for heavy damages because they bring down your network security defences by posing as something harmless while carrying a major threat inside.
   

3. Worms - They are programs that can replicate themselves and spread through multiple sources, like emails. Once it is on your computer, the worm will start searching for some form of file-sharing system, so that they can send themselves to other users.

Basic antivirus software is very ineffective against these kinds of threats. Professional help with skilled experts is required to prevent and detect these types of cyber vulnerabilities. Find out more: www.dicuae.com/soc or contact us at +971 4 2415888 / info@dicuae.com.

2# Lack of adequate backup and recovery plan for sensitive data

As organizations grow, they generate and collect more data which makes them more targetable for hackers and fraudsters. Your organization’s cybersecurity protocols should offer you secure backup and recovery plans of its classified information which most companies fail to make because of lack of understanding or budget issues.

3# Poor antivirus software tools

Organizations need proper endpoint protection that can block cyberattacks on computers and the company’s network. Most of the antivirus software that a company uses is easily bypassed to gain access to the company’s IT system. Moreover, most of the antivirus software is not made to fight sophisticated interferences by hackers using the latest malicious software and malware. Digital Insights offers Endpoint Detection and Response to ensure the first line of defence against cyber attacks.

4# Users accidentally sharing sensitive data

The topmost need for cybersecurity should be safeguarding your sensitive and confidential data. And even the best cloud security network tools are only able to prevent critical information at a technical level. Social media sharing is a common error which, if left untreated, can lead to a severe security breach. And if any information like usernames and passwords or any sensitive information related to your company is posted online on websites like WikiLeaks, it could be very dangerous for your organization.

5# Users let hackers through network security

Phishing attacks are a major reason for hackers and fraudsters gaining access to the company’s network and computing system. Even the most innocent looking emails can be the reason for a data breach in your organization. It is always better to train employees and make them aware of phishing attacks like SMS made to look like an official brand or an email from a co-worker asking for passwords.

6# When unauthorised access becomes legit

When antivirus software is not up to the speed of the latest malware intrusions, the network security of your organization is compromised without your knowledge. And as a result, hackers can easily make most of their spying malware solutions, specifically the key loggers that can steal your company’s classified information.

7# Hackers control an infected computer

There are many ways a computer can get infected. For example, public WiFis, inadequate antivirus software, or downloading files from any unknown sources. Moreover, hackers are equipped with discreet tools such as RATs which means Remote Administration Tools that let hackers access everything that is secured on a specific device.

8# Advanced crime-ware tools

Day after day, hackers are getting more innovative and with the help of the dark web, cybercriminals have reached new levels. In 2020, hackers with only limited knowledge of hacking and almost no experience can target cybersecurity vulnerabilities of an organization. But on the other hand, if hackers are approaching with ‘buy and install tool’ method then the IT department and cybersecurity companies can also gather new knowledge and develop tools for cybersecurity.

9# Hacked sites to steal sensitive information about users

E-commerce sites are now very common, netizens are obsessed with the online shopping culture and there is nothing that you cannot purchase online. Many websites get targeted by hackers that want to use exploit kits to collect sensitive information like credit card details, phone numbers, addresses, and also email ids. Typically, this involves creating a fake website that appears credible and safe to use. And any online transactions made on these websites can jeopardise sensitive information about the users.

10# Outdated or Incompatible software versions

Some companies due to any reason are forced to use outdated and unpatched software systems to support tools that are not compatible with the latest software versions. This is one of the reasons that can lead to cybersecurity vulnerabilities inside your organization. These outdated technologies can be critical for the infrastructure network of the company.