The Top Cybersecurity Challenges Of 2021 And How To Address Them
As we proceed ahead bidding goodbye to an unexpected year of massive change behind us, many organizations are seen functioning extensively with a remote workforce, new technologies in place, and digital transformation underway in the priority list. The word “disruption” adequately sums up our experiences, especially that of organizations amid the pandemic that changed the discourse — no one could have predicted its impact on business, technology, and cybersecurity. While these changes have opened our doors to a world of opportunities, it has also come with a host of cybersecurity challenges.
As per the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2021, cyber risks top the global risks list. The COVID-19 pandemic has inducted the rapid technological adoption, yet exposed cyber vulnerabilities and unpreparedness that thrives hidden and at the same time heightened the already existing tech inequalities within the different fragments of our societies.
Here is a list of the top 5 cybersecurity challenges that organizations should consider and address in 2021.
1. Ransomware attacks
Ransomware attacks have increasingly grown in the last few years. On average, we find a new ransomware victim every ten seconds worldwide, and ransomware costs businesses around $20 billion in 2020, with an increase of 75% over the previous year.
It’s important to understand Ransomware attacks as it restricts any businesses from accessing the basic data needed for daily operations. The ransomware industry has witnessed several innovations in recent years — leading to the growth of the “double extortion” trend where instead of simply encrypting files and demanding a ransom for their recovery, criminal groups now steal sensitive and valuable data from their victims as well and misuse it in their favor. If the target organization fails to deliver the ransom, this data is posted online or sold to the highest bidder impacting the consequences faced.
2. Cloud Adoption strikes Security
With a remote workforce turning into reality due to the prevailing circumstances, companies require the availability, flexibility, and scalability offered by cloud-based solutions.
While many companies are rapidly seen adopting it, despite the advantage the security is lagging. Cloud infrastructure majorly varies from the on-premise data center which introduces unique security challenges. Many organizations are still on their way to mapping these differences, leaving their cloud deployments at risk. For 75% of enterprises, it is still a concern and puts the entire business entity at risk.
3. IoT attacks
The usage of IoT devices is trending in the modern workspace due to their sturdy reaction-time, low investment value to leverage cloud technology and numerous solutions pushed through the device’s communication medium. According to IoT analytics, there will be about 11.6 billion IoT devices by 2021, It can be estimated that the increase is to be accompanied by an increased number of cybercrimes.
Gaining access to such gadgets can result in the compromise of sensitive user data where the cybercriminals can expose the sensitive data which can be accessed through some industrial cloud network posing a huge risk to your expanding business. In this process, having stringent cybersecurity protocols to maintain and protect business information is inevitable.
4. Work-from-home weakness
With the tremendous advantages, the transition to dispersed devices and new devices comes with potential security challenges while adopting the remote working model. In 2021, companies continue to face new security threats due to telework, including:
a) Exploitation of Remote Access Solutions
Employees working remotely need access to the corporate network, exposing confidential VPNs and RDP. Cybercriminals use this opportunity, exploiting poor password security and VPN vulnerabilities to do huge business damage.
b) Thread Hijacking Attacks
In a thread hijacking attack, an attacker with access to an employee’s email or other messaging account joins the communication channel to transmit malicious attachments or links that might take an individual to a phishing site. It expands the attacker’s access within the network.
c) Compromised Endpoints
As employees work from personal devices outside the corporate space with minimal cyber defenses, the risk shoots up. These devices are less likely to be up-to-date on patches and compliant with corporate policy, making them easy targets for exploitation.
5. ML and AI attacks
While ML and AI technologies drive development, it has its vulnerabilities as well. These are exploited by cybercriminals to carry out cyberattacks and pose business threats. These technologies expose high-value targets among a large dataset. The central flaw is the frequent changes to identification parameters as well as biometric logins by the insiders which allow the hackers to pick upon the employee pain points thereby controlling the monitoring of details. Also, Since AI-powered instruments have minimum human intervention, businesses are under the possible danger radar of malware attacks, ransomware being a hurdle to their growth.
Not just that, the criminal networks are taking advantage of AI to automate their attacks, and they are turning to data-poisoning and model-stealing techniques to do so.
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Managing the 2021 Cyber Threat Landscape
Looking at what awaits in front of us, it is critical to continue improving our cybersecurity strategy and develop more partnerships between industries, business leaders, regulators, and policymakers. Being proactive is the only measure that businesses should consider in 2021 — organizations willing to prioritize the security of their organization as an obligatory investment will be able to resist the digital challenges hanging upon us.
Prioritize Strengthening Cybersecurity Team
A shortage persists in many organizations in terms of capable members, while the security challenges continue to grow.
Thus, organizations should attend to the inadequacy by hiring able candidates to strengthen their cybersecurity team- finding well-trained professionals and subject matter experts to help increase the security of corporate networks in the fast-expanding digital world is a helpful measure. While it may take some time to adequately fill in the right position with the right candidates, the right cybersecurity experts, implementing company-wide training for the existing staff can provide a buffer for attacks during the transition.
Investing in Automation of organizational security operations
Data multiplication taking place at alarming rates, calls for hyper-automation on the top of your priority list.
Organizations planning to implement automation resources to act as a method to gather and evaluate data for the current scenario, speed up response time to attacks can terminate the potential monetary loss by effectively withholding unwanted situations.
Implementing Real-time Data Visibility
Many executives don’t have full access to the company’s entire technological landscape — including the IT asset inventory or list of all third-party suppliers and cloud applications used within the organization. This results in faulty risk assessment programs due to inadequate, inaccurate data that underestimates the threat landscape.
To combat this, introducing real-time data visibility within organizations is imperative to managing data protection to the fullest degree. The only way to prevent data loss is to gain overall resilience by knowing exactly where your data is, and for 2021 and years to come.
Educating Employees
Many companies hit the rock button because of their lack of initiative to strengthen their data protection efforts — creating and implementing the culture of cybersecurity awareness and education among their entire employee mass. It should rightly be noted that to divert a threat first it needs to be recognized, and equipping your staff to identify threats on their own can play a vital role in reducing the possibility of a cyberattack given that everyone is self-sufficient to tackle the situation. Relevant training programs will be essential going forward, and leaders who instill the idea that every role is responsible for understanding cybersecurity risks will create a path of success for their organization amidst the unfortunate times.
As the attackers keep growing smarter, new technology will always reveal weaknesses and human error on the table. But businesses should pen down all possible ways to minimize the risk these threats pose. It’s essential to approach security strategies as a matter of urgency and differentiate between those who are equipped to reduce overall risk and those who are evidently vulnerable to the increasing number of attacks burdening us in the modern day. This is especially true as organizations are moving forward with a full-time or a hybrid model of the WFH work model, where the sophisticated cyber threat attackers become more conscious and organized and the refinement of their attacks evolves each day heightening the alarm of danger. It is imperative for organizational leaders to seek out new ways — it could be anything ideally working with a partner who aids in expanding the organization’s cybersecurity maturity and meet the necessary security goals and for others, it means raising your cybersecurity portfolio with new frameworks, functionalities, and IT staff to execute the vision.
That’s not all, some level of effort to cybersecurity is also mandatory on the consumer level. Taking an additional step to implement a cross-platform antivirus program can shield you from the impending risk as we operate in the new digital normal of 2021 where threats follow us like shadows.
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Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text above belong solely to the author, and don’t reflect views of the author’s employer, organization, committee, or other group or individual.
CTO | CIO | Digital Transformation Leader
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