The Biggest Challenges Facing Cybersecurity in 2022

With 2021 rapidly coming to a close, it’s time to look forward to the future of cybersecurity in 2022. What challenges will next year bring, and how can the cybersecurity industry meet them head-on? This article will discuss cybersecurity’s biggest challenges in 2022 and how the industry may deal with them.

The Greatest Challenges Facing Cybersecurity in 2022

There are several issues facing cybersecurity in 2022. Below, we’ve revealed and discussed the problems in detail.

Ransomware

The most present threat facing cybersecurity in 2022 is ransomware. In 2020, ransomware attacks increased by 600%, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this considerable growth, ransomware attacks grew again in the first six months of 2021 by 151%. This exponential rise in ransomware has included some of the most significant attacks in history, including the attack on The Colonial Pipeline. These attacks have become so common and severe that the FBI has found more than 100 strains of ransomware on the internet.

If this trend continues, ransomware will become so common that it affects almost every business and human. Even thru the second half of 2021, ransomware attacks have continued to grow to record highs each month. The most significant danger of continued ransomware attacks is to national security. The most prominent target for ransomware has become government departments.

Hackers are constantly creating new forms of ransomware. Defending against these attacks is incredibly difficult.

Data Security

Challenges facing cybersecurity in 2022 Infographic
The important thing for the cybersecurity industry is knowing what challenges lie ahead and facing them head-on. | Source: Hacked/W.S.Worrall

One of the challenges facing cybersecurity in 2022 is data breaches. Hackers often target data when they breach a system or database. These hackers either have a financial motive or conduct espionage against a foreign country. In the first half of 2021 alone, data breaches exposed over 18 billion records, more than double the planet’s population.

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Each day people add approximately 2.5 trillion gigabytes of data (25,000,000,000,000) to the internet. An enormous amount of private information is online. As this number continues to grow, the cybersecurity industry has to figure out a way to protect such a huge amount of information from hackers and scammers.

Social Media Privacy

In October 2021, Frances Haugen, an ex-employee of Facebook, shared information about the inside working of the company with the US TV program 60 Minutes. A major outage of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp services immediately followed up these revelations.

In the immediate aftermath of the outage, people started to show more scrutiny to Facebook’s data harvesting and usage. Major publications even suggested that this could be the end of Facebook. With people putting so much attention on how social media sites gather and use our data, it seems almost inevitable that a large-scale change to online privacy rules will come into effect soon.

Any change to the way that we collect and use private information, will necessitate changes in the way our cybersecurity works. The problem with these changes is that we do not know what form they will take. If the world’s governments ban data harvesting outright, that could push data mining into the realms of cybercrime. Even if governments aim for milder restrictions, and changes to the way we use data, could break cybersecurity services we currently rely on, such as Google’s password manager.

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How Cybersecurity Will Face These Challenges

While there are certainly many challenges facing cybersecurity in 2022, the situation isn’t hopeless. There are ways to combat each of these dangers, and below we’ll discuss how.

Anti-Ransomware Systems

While it’s true that hackers are constantly creating new forms of ransomware, it is possible to create catch-all defenses against them. As the majority of ransomware targets governments, it’s possible to tailor specific solutions that may not work for everyday users.

One potential solution involves engineering software that is cut off from other parts of a system. This would prevent most ransomware from locking up an entire system. It’s also possible to engineer future computer systems to be ‘hot-swappable’, so new machines can be slotted in to replace those that ransomware has infected.

Another part of this solution involves creating physical backups of a system, and this could work in all environments, from commercial and government to everyday users. This would mean that when a ransomware attack is detected, the affected hard drive could be wiped and then restored. This particular solution could be adopted immediately simply by buying a hard drive and backing up regularly. However, software companies can certainly make it easier by including utilities in their programs and operating systems.

These changes will start to happen as ransomware becomes more common. While the ransomware arms race is a losing battle, building systems that are fundamentally incompatible with ransomware is a more permanent solution.

An Online Data Revolution

Facebook Whistelblower
The Facebook whistleblower has raised serious concerns about the dangers of social media companies. | Source: Sky News Youtube

There are several difficulties related to protecting such a considerable amount of data. First, with so much information online, it’s almost impossible to think of ways to cover all of it. This means that solutions related to data security will have to focus on prioritizing sensitive data.

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There are two different ways in which cybersecurity could rise to meet this challenge. The first method involves coming up with a new data protection system that most companies adapt quickly. However, difficulties will arise as some companies will almost certainly refuse or be slow to adopt the new procedures.

The other way of revolutionizing data protection starts with the user rather than the system itself. Internet users and services may need to change how data is stored and used online radically. This could range from making non-essential data storage by companies illegal to encouraging users to share less information in the first place. Governments could potentially even ban some websites or services outright.

These changes will almost certainly have to occur at the legislative level to be effective no matter what happens.

Protecting Yourself Now

If you’re currently worried about the possibility of ransomware attacks or data breaches, there are steps you can take immediately.

Ensure you make regular backups of important files and do not keep them attached to your system. This can help you to defend against ransomware attacks.

You should also consider investing in our comprehensive security audits that can help you stay safe online. Another great option is our monthly protection plan to protect you against hacks and breaches.

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