Beyond the Horizon - What Lies Ahead in 2024 for Cybersecurity?

2023 has indeed been a roller-coaster of a year, marked by transformative events that have left an indelible impact on the global landscape. The realm of artificial intelligence has witnessed unprecedented growth and influence, with OpenAI at the forefront of cutting-edge innovations.

However, amidst these technological strides, the year has also been characterized by heightened geopolitical tensions, further underscoring the complexities of our interconnected world.

As cyber threats continue to evolve, with both new and familiar adversaries testing the resilience of cybersecurity measures. Join us in this blog post as we forecast the trends that will shape the cybersecurity landscape in 2024.

An Overview of the Current State of Cybersecurity

In 2023, the cybersecurity landscape continued to evolve, marked by persistent threats and workforce challenges. The figures below are sourced from ISACA's Global Cybersecurity State Report 2023 and accurately summarize the current cybersecurity landscape. Here's a quick rundown:

When it comes to the threat landscape, 38% of enterprises report facing more cyberattacks, a 5-point decrease from 2022. This is a notable change and a positive one as it indicates that organizations are becoming more proactive in their approach to cybersecurity.

Moreover, their confidence in their abilities to detect and respond to cyberattacks has improved drastically and remains unchanged from last year at 81% - the highest it's ever been.

This assurance is surprising given that 47% of respondent businesses had a security staff of two to ten people. Furthermore, in-house workers fully oversee around half of their five core security functions, with the majority of the remainder largely outsourced to their cybersecurity team.

The threat landscape sees cybercriminals (27%), hackers (20%), and nation-state actors (12%) as primary concerns. Social engineering (15%) dominates attack methods, with non-malicious insiders rising to 11%. Notable methods include APTs (11%), security misconfigurations (10%), ransomware (10%), unpatched systems (10%), sensitive data exposure (9%), and denial of service (9%).

The major cybersecurity fears of enterprises remain unchanged from the last three years, with business reputation topping the list at 79%, followed by data breach concerns at 69% and supply chain disruptions at 55%.

The cybersecurity skills gap remains a pressing issue for enterprises across the globe. 47% of respondents reported being somewhat understaffed, while 15% reported being significantly understaffed. Retention of talent also remains a concern, with 56% of respondents citing this as a top concern.

So what does 2024 hold for cybersecurity? We're dishing out the top predictions from our experts. Keep reading to find out.

Top Trends to Watch in 2024 Cybersecurity

Rising Threats

Ransomware, phishing attacks, APTs, misconfigurations, and supply-chain attacks remained top concerns for companies and organizations throughout 2022, with an astonishing 79% of organizations worldwide reporting a ransomware attack between June and December of last year. Cybercriminals also continued to exploit the vulnerabilities in public cloud infrastructures and cloud services, a trend that emerged in 2020. Businesses should be prepared to experience more of the same in 2024, as cybercriminals continue to look for ways to exploit weak networks and systems. Additionally, other emerging threats such as AI-powered cyberattacks, deepfakes, and cryptojacking could become increasingly popular with cybercriminals in the new year.

Improving Identity and Access Management

When it comes to cybersecurity, one of the most important things you can do is to ensure that only authorized users have access to sensitive data and systems. This process is known as identity and access management (IAM), and it's something that every organization needs to get right. Insufficient access control mechanisms, such as a lack of Multifactor Authentication (MFA) for SaaS solutions are one of the primary reasons why so many cloud breaches occur. In 2024, passwordless authentication could gain traction as a way to mitigate the risk of password-related breaches. Passwordless authentication uses biometrics, tokens, and other methods to replace passwords with a more secure alternative.

Balancing Privacy with Regulation

Another big challenge for enterprises will be how to find the right balance between privacy and regulation. On one hand, customers are demanding more control over their personal data. And on the other hand, there is a growing number of regulations around the collection of personal data by enterprises. Striking the right balance between these two competing interests is going to be a challenge for businesses in the coming year.

Increased Focus on Automation and Orchestration

The volume and complexity of cyber threats are only going to increase and companies simply can't keep up with manual processes. Security automation won't be a 'nice to have' in 2024; it will be a 'must have'. At this point, automated solutions are the only way to save resources and time and be resilient against automated cyber-attacks.

Solutions with SOAR capabilities like automation and orchestration will be an essential part of an organization's security toolkit in 2024. SOAR technology is designed to address the challenges security teams face - from the volume of alerts to the shortage of skilled resources, and work overload. Next-generation SOAR solutions are built for flexibility, efficiency, and ease of use, and they integrate effortlessly with existing systems. 

Emerging Tech - AI and Machine Learning

Today, AI and machine learning are increasingly used to deliver better security solutions. By incorporating AI and ML into existing security and business processes, enterprises can create real-time and proactive security solutions. These solutions can analyze data such as logs, transactions, and real-time user behavior to create personalized security policies and detect suspicious activities.

However, AI and ML are not just limited to enhancing security solutions. Hackers are getting more and more adept at these technologies, improving their techniques to gain access to sensitive data. So, it will be a challenge to ensure that algorithms work in favor of cybersecurity and not against it. Deepfakes, AI-generated content that convincingly mimics real human actions, pose new challenges for cybersecurity. Moreover, GenAI can also be used to develop AI-based social engineering attacks that could possibly circumvent existing defenses.

In addition, machine learning and AI can be used to add layers to authentication solutions and detect fraudulent activities. An IBM study found that the use of AI and automation cut breach lifecycles by 108 days and saved an average of $US1.76 million in breach costs. Even organizations with a partially deployed AI and automation program outperformed those that didn't have one at all.

Cloud Security and Its Importance

Most organizations today rely on the cloud for storing data, hosting applications, delivering services to customers, and various other IT needs. Almost half of all data breaches happen in the cloud. As businesses move more of their workloads to the cloud, the risk of a data breach is only going to increase. Did you know that 82% of data breaches involved data stored in the cloud?

Human errors are the biggest contributing factor (55%) to data breaches in the cloud, followed by the exploitation of vulnerabilities (21%). However, just vulnerability management and awareness training are not enough to protect your cloud environment from being breached. In current and newer cloud attacks, it's not just about patching vulnerabilities but also about understanding what could happen inside your cloud environment once a vulnerability is exploited. To understand this, enterprises need to focus on gaining visibility and control over their cloud environments and understand the impact of vulnerabilities in the cloud.  Prioritizing vulnerabilities based on their severity and impact is essential to ensure that your organization's cloud environment is secure.

Third-Party Risks

As organizations increasingly rely on external partners and vendors, the potential for cyber threats extends beyond internal controls. Cyber adversaries often exploit vulnerabilities in the supply chain to gain unauthorized access.  Some of the biggest data breaches in the last few years have been a result of third-party vendor attacks - SolarWinds, Uber, and Okta are just a few of the well-known examples. 93% of companies have suffered a cybersecurity breach because of weaknesses in their supply chain / third-party vendors.

Join Black Hat Founder Jeff Moss and Black Hat Asia Review Board members Ty Miller, Threat Intelligence's Managing Director, Sudhanshu Chauhan, and Asuka Nakajima for an insightful conversation on the most pressing issues facing the InfoSec community: 

Preventing Insider Threats

Here are some steps you can follow to prevent insider threats: 

Threat Detection

Detecting and identifying potential insider threats requires the right mix of people, and tools. People such as employees, friends, peers, family, and casual observers are often the best judge of suspicious or inappropriate behaviors, as they have more insight into an individual's behaviors, stressors, and emotions. This individual insight can be augmented by monitoring tools that keep an eye on your network at all times and detect anomalous behavior. 

Regular Risk Assessments

In addition to monitoring tools, it is essential to regularly assess the risks associated with potential insider threats. This helps to identify vulnerabilities, potential threats, and areas of improvement. Regular risk assessments can help identify and address areas of concern, such as access control policies, authentication protocols, user access privileges, and employee training programs. 

Least Privilege and Separation of Duties

One of the best defenses against insider threats is the implementation of least privilege and separation of duties. Least privilege means that individuals are only granted the access to resources that are needed to perform their job, while separation of duties requires that no single user is able to access all parts of a system or process. This limits the potential damage an insider could cause and helps ensure that any malicious activity is caught sooner. Additionally, organizations should regularly review user access and ensure that people only have access to systems they need to perform their job.

User Education and Training

User education and training can help organizations prevent insider threats by teaching users about the risks and consequences of their actions. It is important to equip users with the knowledge and resources to recognize and report suspicious activities, as well as to understand the importance of data security. 

Some more tips on reducing the risk of insider threats: 

If you keep looking at your employees as the problem, it can set a tone that the IT team is the enemy. Rather, look at your employees as your biggest asset and potentially also your greatest defense. Instead of viewing employees as a threat, focus on harnessing the untapped security potential of your workforce. Switching to a more positive and collaborative approach can create a safer environment for your employees and ultimately create a more secure organization. 

To further avoid the risk of insider threats, consider developing policies that don't leave employees in a financially strained position in your organization as they are the ones most likely to have malicious intent. Additionally, review your vendors and contractors regularly to ensure that they are compliant with your company's security policies and industry standards. 

Closing Thoughts - How Can Enterprises Prepare for the Future?

As we look ahead into 2024 and beyond, the question is no longer how to prepare for the future but rather, how can enterprises leverage future trends to ensure they are secure while driving innovation and growth.

While we may see new, bigger, and better threats, companies will still struggle to protect their data from current, persisent threats such as sophisticated malware, ransomware, and phishing campaigns. The key is to understand the risks to your enterprise as they are today, and what the impacts could be in the future. 

How Can Threat Intelligence Help?

Evolve is an enterprise-grade cybersecurity solutions provider that offers a unique combination of highly specialized expertise and security technologies to address today's biggest cybersecurity challenges. Evolve specializes in creating customized security solutions tailored to your specific security needs and business goals. And most importantly, Evolve solutions are continuously updated so that you can secure your enterprise for the long run. To learn more about our offerings, schedule a demo with one of our experts today.