Top 7 Cybersecurity Trends for 2022

 1. Cultivate a Security Culture
You can have the greatest systems in place, properly penetration tested and configured perfectly, but the point of failure in your cybersecurity plan will almost always be human error made at one point or another. It is important to cultivate a culture that teaches your employees how to work securely. This can be achieved with even just basic policies like not leaving laptops unlocked and open when walking away from them.

2. Phishing will Target Your Users
A seemingly innocent looking email that looks like it came from Facebook asking a user to update their password can be a point of entry for someone phishing for access. Once they gain access to one password it is likely a bad actor will be able to use that information to start moving laterally within your systems to gain more access.

3. Spear Phishing will Target Your Users Even More
The difference between phishing and spear phishing is in methodology. Whereas phishing is more of a “spray and pray” approach to gaining access to credentials, spear phishing uses data about the targeted systems, company, or person to actively target. For instance, sending an email disguised as one from your internal IT department or an executive within the company.

4. The Basics Are Still Important
Make sure you fully use technologies like DKIM, SPF, and DMARC for your emails. DKIM validates that the sender is who the sender says they are. Spoofing authoritative or trusted domains is a common methodology when phishing and so making sure that your users are alerted, or never even see an email that comes from a spoofed trusted domain, could be the difference between a company that has credentials phished from a user and one that doesn’t.

5. Use Multifactor Authentication (MFA) Whenever Possible
MFA can be most readily compared to your experience at an ATM. It requires two pieces of information to withdraw cash; Your debit card and your PIN. This prevents someone from gaining one piece of information or a credential and immediately having access. MFA will require an extra step from your users but should be used on your most sensitive systems.
6. Ransomware Attacks Are Going to Be Increasingly Common
Ransomware can slow the operations of a business to a crawl. The hack that took down the largest fuel pipeline in the U.S. and led to shortages across the East Coast in 2021 was the result