Minimize Cyber Risks With Back-To-Basics

Cyber security is becoming more and more of an issue in companies. The war in Ukraine, increasing inflation and rapidly rising energy prices may have an impact on where and how much companies invest in their IT security.

While digital investments will continue to grow steadily in 2023, the attack surface for regulatory risks and security breaches within the cyber world is expanding.

In order to minimize this gap, it will be essential in the future to focus all measures on simplifying security solutions. In many cases, such a back-to-basics approach then means that consolidated controls must be complemented by a data-centric security offering.

More Cloud , Fewer Professionals : Higher Risk 

The truth about the cyber risk and threat landscape is that it doesn't simply follow the calendar year. In reality, many trends that we will see in 2023 are a continuation of what we already know. As economic conditions deteriorate, IT leaders will be forced to promote efficient growth, cost savings and productivity at the same time.This will result in more and more infrastructure work being outsourced to cloud computing providers.

Such an expanded attack surface poses a particular challenge. Recent studies show that more than two-fifths of companies feel that the protection and level of vulnerability has got out of control as a result. This number is expected to increase further in 2023. The drive to cut costs and increase efficiencies can also put security budgets themselves at risk, particularly in the mid market. However, considering the potential financial and reputational costs that a serious breach could entail, failing to take necessary protective measures is a huge mistake.

Forecasts show that IT spending will continue to rise. Here, the security area is responsible for the largest proportion of software expenditure. However, whether there are enough qualified information security professionals in the company to manage these products is a question that can already be described as burning today due to the situation on the job market. Outsourcing functional parts, such as SecOps, to specialized third-party providers is likely to become part of common practice as skill shortages worsen and staffing budgets tighten.

Ransomware Leads The Field 

What are future threats? It's not difficult to imagine that ransomware will continue to be one of the biggest risks for companies in 2023. As long as the tactics, techniques, and methods used by criminal ransomware actors are successful, little is likely to change.The case of the SolarWinds attack. Potential targets include administrative service providers infecting downstream customers, or individual partners such as a law firm being targeted for specific customer data.

Companies should therefore move from point-in-time assessments, which take place once or twice a year, to continuous risk management.That  suffers from a shortage of skilled workers easier. The idea of a cybersecurity mesh architecture follows exactly this guideline. According to Gartner Research, organizations that adopt this approach will reduce the financial impact of security incidents by an average of 90% by 2024.

This seems a promising way to manage an increasingly dislocated and exposed IT environment.  However, compatibility and ease of integration will be key selling points as CISOs strive for simplicity and control in 2023.