With the digital revolution around all businesses, it is a good time to evaluate cyber security trends to better secure the future of your business. 

The unprecedented events of 2020 disrupted businesses, damaged the global economy and shook the cybersecurity industry. Companies across all sectors have experienced a spike in cyberattacks as COVID-19 reshaped the industries in the form of remote work.

However, as organizations are able to secure their remote workforces in 2021, still most needed to rethink their:

• Existing policies 
• System controls
• Risk management functions

The rapid shift to remote working increased most organizations’ attack surface, exposing them to more vulnerabilities. This period also accelerated many trends, such as digitalization and migration to the cloud. This caused even more data vulnerabilities. 

The word “disruption” adequately describes the experiences of countless organizations amid COVID-19—no one could have predicted its impact on business, technology, and cybersecurity. However, here, you will find the emerging threat landscape and what cybersecurity trends pose the most risk in 2021 and beyond. 

Rise of Automotive Hacking 

The first amongst cyber security trends in 2021 is going to be the rise of automotive hacking. Modern vehicles nowadays come packed with automated software creating seamless connectivity for drivers in cruise control, engine timing, door lock, airbags, and advanced systems for driver assistance. Thus, these hese vehicles use Bluetooth and WiFi technologies to communicate, which also opens them to several vulnerabilities or threats from hackers. 

Accordingly, gaining control of the vehicle or using microphones for eavesdropping is expected to rise in 2021 with more use of automated vehicles. Self-driving or autonomous vehicles use an even further complex mechanism that requires strict cybersecurity measures. 

Cloud Threats

As remote work and online collaboration intensified during the coronavirus pandemic, cloud adoption has emerged as an ally for enterprises to ensure business continuity. Though global businesses have been migrating to the cloud before the crisis, the pandemic acted as a catalyst for the same.

However, rapid cloud migration is set to introduce a host of new security threats and challenges.

Cloud-based security threats includes:

• Misconfigured cloud storage
• Reduced visibility and control
• Incomplete data deletion
• Vulnerable cloud apps

They will continue to disrupt businesses in the future ahead.

Mobile is the New Target 

Cyber security trends provide a considerable increase (50 percent) for mobile banking malware or attacks in 2019. It makes our handheld devices a potential prospect for hackers. All our photos, financial transactions, emails, and messages possess more threats to individuals. Smartphone viruses or malware may capture the attention of cybersecurity trends in 2021.

The Rise of Double-Extortion Ransomware

Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) operators develops and sell ransomware, expanding their reach and providing less sophisticated threat actors with access to high-quality malware.

However, another recent trend is the “double extortion” ransomware campaign. Instead of simply encrypting files and demanding a ransom for their recovery, ransomware groups now steal sensitive and valuable data from their victims as well. The data is posted online or sold to the highest bidder If the target organization does not pay the ransom,

Digital Acceleration

Enterprises are adopting work from home models, which make collaboration security a growing concern. Organizations are racing to keep up with the security fears that accompany their digital acceleration. To increase productivity, remote employees are using more collaboration tools, such as:

• Slack  
• Microsoft Teams
• Zoom 

These apps create greater data security and compliance issues and increase the risk of insider threats. However, the sharing functions can lead to confidential data leakage. 

Despite vendors’ attempts, these collaboration tools cannot patch vulnerabilities fast enough. In 2020, 

Increased Use of Multi-Factor Authentication

Passwords remain a standard for cybersecurity best practices. However, more companies will adopt multi-factor authentication (MFA) as an additional defense against data breaches and malicious attacks in 2021. MFA involves the use of two or more separate factors in authorizing users to access secure data. It forcing people to use more than one device to confirm their identity. An example of MFA in action is having a one-time passcode sent to two or more devices.

COVID-19 Phishing Schemes

With the continued release of the COVID-19 vaccination, people are increasingly searching for vaccination information. Such as where it’s being provided and who’s been approved to get it. Unfortunately, this has brought about a significant level of phishing attacks tied to the COVID-19 vaccine. Attacks against pharmaceutical companies and vaccine distributors, along with email phishing attacks disguised as vaccination appointment emails, are on the uptick.

Insider Threats

Human error is still one of the primary reasons for the data breach. Any bad day or intentional loophole can bring down a whole organization with millions of stolen data. A report by Verizon on data breaches gives strategic insights on cybersecurity trends that the employees directly or indirectly made 34 percent of total attacks. So make sure you create more awareness within premises to safeguard data in every way possible. 

Closing Thought

These cyber security trends in 2021 are bound to have more fear in organizations to stack their security measures. It is expected that organizations will spend more than ever with $100+ billion on protecting their assets alone this year. 

With infrastructure security a significant part of almost every organization today, it would be an excellent choice to start their learning curve in cybersecurity today to become experts for tomorrow. 

Gearing up your security game and keeping pace with these cyber security trends is the best call today.

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