If cybersecurity isn’t a priority for your business in 2023, it should be.  

In 2022 it wasn’t unusual to see cybersecurity incidents make global headlines as high-profile attacks occurred around the world. In fact, since 2020 ransomware attacks have increased 435% on businesses across the world.  

With economic uncertainty and a looming recession, financially motivated crimes will continue to be popular in the next year. To stay prepared, businesses need to be aware of the threats they face, their security gaps, and remediate any vulnerabilities that leave their doors open to an attack. 

Here are the top cybersecurity threats business leaders should watch in 2023.  

Internal Threats and Human Error

Often internal threats get looked over, but humans regularly fall victim to attacks. In fact, the human element is involved in 95% of all breaches. Whether intentional or not, humans who often perform routine tasks are even more at risk to fall victim to attacks. Next month, Microsoft will be making a major security feature update to Microsoft Authenticator to safeguard against “accidental approvals” which occur when an attacker sends multiple approval request hoping a user will eventually hit approve to get the notification to go away.  

They best way to combat this threat is to implement a cybersecurity program that is relevant to your industry. You should also put proper measures in place to monitor threats inside your organization and flag suspicious behavior.   

Crime-as-a-Service

Security experts expect that in 2023, ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS), cybercrime-as-a-service (CaaS) and malware-as-a-service (Maas) will continue to grow as they offer hackers low-cost access to valuable, stolen data. With these services we see that sophisticated and seasoned cybercriminals are now leasing out their infrastructure to other cybercrime groups, for a fee, making it easier for hackers to deploy their attacks quickly with little to no effort.  

As attackers become more established, crime-as-a-service offers seasoned cybercriminals a quick and relatively consistent payday. In some instances this may mean insider threats could play a bigger part in crime-as-a-service as well. In fact, last year, Meta employees were caught employees using their privilege to hack into user’ Facebook accounts on behalf of hackers. Some of the cases involved bribery where the employees were being paid thousands of dollars to hack into accounts.   

The best way to mitigate the risk of an attack is to stay alert, regularly conduct cybersecurity training, understand where the vulnerabilities are in your network, address your security gaps, and implement zero-trust strategies. 

BEC and Social Engineering

In 2022 the Anti-Phishing Working Group recorded over 3 million phishing attacks in the first three quarters, which each quarter breaking another record as the worst quarter the APQG had ever seen. With email protection in place across many organizations, experts are finding that mobile devices and personal channels such as LinkedIn and WhatsApp are becoming increasing popular amongst attack groups. A recent study revealed there was a 50% increase in attacks on mobile devices alone, compared to last year. In some instances, attackers left voicemails and then sent either a follow-up text or email to lend credibility to the sender. 

Often in economic downturn individuals are more willing to risk committing fraud for financial gain so we expect in 2023 this will continue to be a major threat both individuals and organizations face. Just as cybercriminals evolve their attack methods, individuals need to keep up to speed as well. To defend against this cybersecurity threat, users need to stay vigilant when giving out information and stay up to date on the latest phishing techniques. 

Attacks on Cloud Security

With the number of employees working remote the need for cloud migration and cloud security has increased drastically. Network parameters and security boundaries are no longer contained within the office walls. They now extend to wherever data is stored including user accounts or with third-party providers. 

The best way to protect your business from a cloud attack is by implementing zero-trust strategies. This means that instead of trusting everything inside your firewall to access any portion of your network you need to check and ensure devices and sign-ins are authorized every single time before granting someone access. You also should never trust sign-ins or devices based on their location. Lastly – even though you may trust all your employees and team members, you should never give them more access than they need. With the hybrid work environment individuals are increasingly using the same device for business and personal use and if just one individual is compromised, the attacker only needs to move laterally to get into the corporate network and attack.  

Cyber Attacks by Nation States 

Throughout 2022 there were multiple cyber attacks by nation states that topped news headlines across the globe. The fastest way to dominant in many industries is through cyber espionage where cybercriminals gain access to intellectual proper, chip designs and other government information. While we don’t know what the next attack will be – this cybersecurity threat will be something experts pay attention to.   

Stay Secure in 2023  

In 2022 the average cost of a breach in the United States was $9.44 M. With businesses suffering more attempts per week – all businesses, no matter what size, should look to do anything possible to refrain from being subject to an attack. As a business you can’t just rely on one safeguard; you need to adopt a total cybersecurity framework to keep your business and your data safe.  

A culture of cybersecurity starts at the top, and it’s critical to have strategic partners that understand your unique business requirements. At Convergence Networks, we start by understanding your business and identifying your cybersecurity gaps. From there we identify the investments and best practices that will best help you build a strong foundation, delivered by our security-first strategic and support teams.  

If your organization is ready to make the necessary modifications and advancements to keep up with the current threat landscape, the next step is to contact a cybersecurity firm, like Convergence Networks. We will work with you to navigate your current environment and work towards building a secure tomorrow for your business. Contact us to learn more about our process and the investments you can make to keep your company, customers, employees, and partners safe.  

Want to learn more? Visit our website to learn more about our Managed Security Services and Cybersecurity Projects.