TOP FIVE CYBER THREATS IN 2022
2022 has so far been an interesting year for cybersecurity world. As we have been witnessing growth in technology, the same has been happening in cyber threats. Remote working is on the rise. Many people have embraced working from home since covid-19 outbreak forced everyone to try using the internet to work remotely. Since every organization tested and felt that they can depend on technology to lower office costs, 2022 has so far been the year of fully utilizing all applications and technologies that support working from home or remotely. Therefore, this year we have witnessed an influx in cyber threats.
Here are the top five threats that have been causing havoc in the cyber world.
- Work from home threat / Remote work threats
The pandemic introduced new threats. As people started using the internet to work at home due to covid-19, it exposed many organizations to different cybersecurity threats than the previous ones. There were many challenges for organizations to provide security while working from home. They have not been able to fully monitor and protect systems in the remote environment. Many employees of different organizations have been victims of phishing fraud by use of video conferencing services like zoom, google meet, and many more. Personal data is being stolen on daily basis since the time of the pandemic as users continue using video conferencing services.
- Ransomware attacks
This year has seen ransomware has been utilized in executing cyber-attacks on sophisticated networks. Highly intelligent ransomware has been used by highly trained cyber criminals to hack systems. This year reports show that there has been a great increase in ransomware attacks compared to all other years. In addition, reports show mobile malware is on the rise. Many impersonating apps steal personal details like usernames, passwords, and emails. There have been attacks from FluBot, Brata, TeaBot, and TangleBot malware.
- Mobile security issues
Everyone is using smartphones. Hackers have known that many financial transactions are being done from mobile phones. Every financial institution has a mobile app that accesses all banking details. Hackers have come up with websites and mobile apps that look exactly like those from legit bank apps and websites. It makes it easy for customers to get into the wrong website and give all banking details that are used to make transactions from the bank. The same happens using apps too.
Reports show that 40 percent of mobile devices have loopholes that can be used to do cyberattacks. It also shows that 46 percent of organizations have had at least one employee download a malicious mobile app.
Most of these attacks are done using social engineering, phishing, and malware.
- Cloud vulnerabilities
Cloud infrastructure is the future of every organization. It is a dream for an organization to move its services into the cloud. Because everything is relying on the internet, it becomes a trick to provide security for all applications being used to provide all those services. Reports show that 90 percent of data breaches target external cloud assets while 30 of all businesses do not provide cloud security controls. This shows that the cloud is vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Hackers use malware, phishing techniques, and social engineering techniques to lure users into giving out their details.
- Poor cyber hygiene
These are habits and bad practices that users do when using technology. For example, use can start using open Wi-Fi network while he or she is on a bank application. It exposes all banking details to hackers that are on the entire internet looking for opportunities/loopholes to exploit. Another poor hygiene is when a user leaves the computer on without locking it or even writes down passwords in a notebook.