Cybersecurity expert Check Point Software has detailed the key security challenges that organisations will face in the coming year in its cybersecurity predictions for 2023.
Globally, cyberattacks across all industry sectors increased by 28% in the third quarter of 2022 compared to 2021. Check Point predicts a continued sharp rise worldwide, driven by increases in ransomware exploits and in state-mobilised hacktivism driven by international conflicts. Additionally, Check Point Research has found that cyberthreats targeting companies across Africa outnumber those in other parts of the world.
Adding further pressure to the volatile environment, organisations’ security teams will face growing pressure as the global cyber workforce gap of 3,4-million employees widens further, and governments are expected to introduce new cyber regulations to protect citizens against breaches.
The dearth of cybersecurity professionals across Africa means it is more important than ever for the private sector to partner with government and tertiary education institutions to develop relevant education programmes. These cybersecurity skills programmes can filter through the entire educational environment and create an enabling environment where a much-needed gap can be addressed.
“The frontier between the cyberworld and our everyday lives has become vanishingly small and the impact of a cyberthreat can have multiple faces,” says Issam El Haddioui, head of security engineering at Check Point EMEA – Africa. “Impact ranges from financial implications caused by ransomware attacks to the disruption of organisational profit flow, to the inability to bring goods and services to citizens. The cyberthreat landscape is an evolving environment and therefore cybersecurity posture enhancement needs to be a continuous journey, with measures that need to be evaluated and adapted to new realities.”
In 2022, cybercriminals and state-linked threat actors continued to exploit organisations’ hybrid working practices, and the increase in these attacks is showing no signs of slowing as the Russia – Ukraine conflict continues to have a profound impact globally.
Meanwhile in Africa, most cyberattacks are targeting the ISP and communication sector, with more than 5 600 attacks per week identified. Organisations need to consolidate and automate their security infrastructure to enable them to better monitor and manage their attack surfaces and prevent all types of threat with less complexity and less demand on staff resources.
“Cybercrime is a global problem that has affected South Africa, both in the private sector and in government,” says Charnie-Lee Adams-Kruger, country manager for South Africa at Check Point. “Financial losses have been in the billions and could continue to increase if stricter measures are not put in place. The main target of the African continent is mainly South Africa due to its high connectivity rate, wealth, and GDP per capita.”
Check Point’s cybersecurity predictions for 2023 fall into four categories: malware and phishing; hacktivism; emerging government regulations; and security consolidation.
Hikes in malware and hacking exploits
No respite from ransomware: this was the leading threat to organisations in the first half of 2022, and the ransomware ecosystem will continue to evolve and grow with smaller, more agile criminal groups forming to evade law enforcement.
Compromising collaboration tools: while phishing attempts against business and personal email accounts are an everyday threat, in 2023 criminals will widen their aim to target business collaboration tools such as Slack, Teams, OneDrive, and Google Drive with phishing exploits. These are a rich source of sensitive data given most organisations’ employees continue to often work remotely.
Hacktivism and deepfakes evolve
State-mobilised hacktivism: in the past year, hacktivism has evolved from social groups with fluid agendas (such as Anonymous) to state-backed groups that are more organised, structured, and sophisticated. Such groups have attacked targets in the US, Germany, Italy, Norway, Finland, Poland, and Japan recently, and these ideological attacks will continue to grow in 2023.
Weaponising deepfakes: in October 2022, a deepfake of US President Joe Biden singing “Baby Shark” instead of the national anthem was circulated widely. Was this a joke, or an attempt to influence the important US mid-term elections? Deepfakes technology will be increasingly used to target and manipulate opinions, or to trick employees into giving up access credentials.
Governments step up measures to protect citizens
New laws around data breaches: the breach at Australian telco Optus has driven the country’s government to introduce new data breach regulations that other telcos must follow, to protect customers against subsequent fraud. We will see other national governments following this example in 2023, in addition to existing measures such as GDPR across the European Union and POPIA in South Africa.
New national cybercrime task forces: more governments will follow Singapore’s example of setting up inter-agency task forces to counter ransomware and cybercrime, bringing businesses, state departments and law enforcement together to combat the growing threat to commerce and consumers. These efforts are partially a result of questions over whether the cyber-insurance sector can be relied upon as a safety net for cyber-incidents. Cross-Africa collaboration and the potential establishment of a continental cybersecurity body could benefit all member states and companies both in terms of common laws and regulations, but also when it comes to providing a unified response to cyberthreats.
Mandating security and privacy by design: the automotive industry has already moved to introduce measures to protect the data of vehicle owners. This example will be followed in other areas of consumer goods that store and process data, holding manufacturers accountable for vulnerabilities in their products.
Consolidation matters
Cutting complexity to reduce risks: the global cyberskills gap grew by over 25% in 2022. Yet organisations have more complex, distributed networks and cloud deployments than ever before because of the pandemic. Security teams need to consolidate their IT and security infrastructures to improve their defences and reduce their workload, to help them stay ahead of threats. Over two-thirds of CISOs stated that working with fewer vendors’ solutions would increase their company’s security.