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The rise of the digital age comes with its own challenges, making cybersecurity the number one priority for major corporations. However, cybersecurity is more important in 2023 than ever. Here are five reasons why.
Sophisticated Cyber Attacks Need Advanced Cybersecurity
The 21st century in the first 22 years has made stupendous progress in the field of digital technologies. However, along with significant improvements, the world has also witnessed the emergence of sophisticated cyber attacks. Cybercriminals are updating their systems and designing advanced modes of attacks to bypass existing cybersecurity systems.
For instance, the 51% Attacks on crypto exchanges in the last few years have resulted in the loss of billions of dollars. Likewise, a flooding-based DDoS attack is a dangerous sophisticated cyber threat, an example of which was the Google Attack of 2020, which targeted 180,000 exposed servers. The Google Attack was at least four times larger than the Mirai botnet attack of 2019.
To tackle such well-engineered cyber attacks, IT professionals need to focus on network security, data security, and endpoint security more than ever. While it may have been perfectly fine to have a cybersecurity system for years, we need continuous evaluation and upgrade of digital security systems today.
Moreover, as newer technologies start becoming a norm, something as advanced AI and IoT, cyber-attacks are likely to evolve. Thus business organizations need to focus on preparedness now more than ever.
Rise of Digital Economy and Decentralized Finance
The evolution of finance from conventional to digital is one of the great advancements of the 21st century. Likewise, the rise of blockchain and decentralized finance, preceded by the e-commerce boom, has pushed the world into an unprecedented journey. While there have been numerous benefits of the digital economy and DeFi, new types of cyber attacks have emerged as a byproduct, some with novel technicalities and complexities.
The future of the digital economy is slated for stupendous growth for the foreseeable future, especially with the expansion of high-speed internet in developing regions. Thus, the opportunities for digital services and product providers are massive, but they come with increased risks of cyber threats. Threat to cloud data, servers, digital money, etc., is rising by the day, keeping cybersecurity experts on their toes to stay ahead of the hackers.
After making a dignified space in alternative finance, DeFi is now moving towards mass integration. However, blockchain literacy and overall digital finance literacy are still to catch up. Thus, the need to build smarter and more proactive network security systems is a need more than a luxury for organizations catering to the digital economy.
Global Expansion and Rise of E-Commerce
If e-commerce wasn’t already the greatest revolution of the 21st century, the pandemic years surely made it one. The industry grew multifold during the lockdown era, expanding in unchartered territories across Asia and Africa. Even developed countries like the UK witnessed about 35% growth in e-retailer consumers in 2020 as compared to the previous year.
However, the stupendous rise of e-commerce and millions of financial transactions being carried out on payment gateways attracted novel cyber threats. For instance, online sales in the United States crossed $500 billion between the beginning of the pandemic and August 2020, registering a significant growth year-on-year. However, during the same period, cyber attacks on online portals hit record numbers, with sophisticated techniques like Remote Code Execution (RCE) and Cross-Site Scripting (XSS).
The Cyber Defense Magazine noted that at least 86% of e-commerce consumers experienced some form of cybercrime during the lockdown era. In the first lockdown itself, consumers in the UK lost over £16.6 million due to cyber scams, which exceeded 16,300 in number. Black Friday of 2020 witnessed a stupendous 336% rise in phishing attacks.
Increased Reliance on Cloud Data
Information, or in other words, data is the most valuable commodity of the digital age. The need for data has moved beyond hard disks and servers, especially with the emergence of cloud data service providers. However, the increased reliance on cloud data has been directly proportional to the growth in instances of sensitive data breaches.
Even the biggest players in the data space haven’t been able to maintain a clean sheet in terms of data breaches. Network security pioneer McAfee also suggests that cloud data is could be more vulnerable than data stored in on-site servers. Therefore, organizations need better cybersecurity systems to keep cloud data safe and secure around the clock.
A great example is the Amazon Web Service (AWS) data breaches between 2019 and 2022. The Capital One Breach of 2019 resulted in the data breach of more than 100 million people. Likewise, Amazon-backed Twitch witnessed a data leak of 128GB of files that were uploaded on the message board. The unknown hackers also posted confidential files like the source code of Twitch and the earning figures of streamers.
As per Triskele Labs data, cyber attacks on cloud data accounted for 20% of all cyber attacks in 2020. This made cloud data third on the list of most targeted spaces by cybercriminals. In March 2020, just when the pandemic was setting in, CAM4, an adult streaming platform suffered a massive cyber attack, exposing 7TB of sensitive data, including, locations, IP addresses, transaction details, and more.
Adoption of the Internet without the Spread of Computer Literacy
The internet boom in the 4G era, especially in developing markets like India, was mind-boggling. Cheaper tariff rates and affordable devices made high-speed internet access for new users irrespective of their income or educational background. And the trend of internet adoption is likely to grow in the foreseeable future.
However, computer literacy or cyber risk awareness hasn’t grown as much. According to a Cyber Talk report, more than 15 billion phishing emails are sent every day. About 30-42% of people fall into the trap and click on malicious links. Therefore, it was reported that out of all the data breach incidents, 90% arise due to phishing emails and SMSs. Most such incidents occur due to a lack of internet awareness and education.
Over 80% of firms in the United States reported that cybersecurity education helped organizations lower phishing attacks. However, not more than 60% of firms reportedly took such initiatives to educate their employees and users. Consequently, phishing attacks, which are primarily associated with a lack of cybersecurity awareness, have become an expensive threat to organizations globally.
Expansion and accessibility of the internet are likely to bring millions of people into the internet space. While most of these newcomers should take efforts for acquiring computer literacy, organizations themselves need to put strong security protocols and digital systems to keep the user and the organization secured.
Why Mechsoft?
Mechsoft is one of the most formidable new-age cybersecurity platforms. We provide comprehensive data security and network safety solutions to reputed clients across the globe. Our engineers are highly-qualified cybersecurity experts with substantial experience in safeguarding data networks. Moreover, Mechsoft offers comprehensive integrated digital transformation solutions, which keep network security as the prime objective. Contact us today to get in touch with our experts to ace your digital game.
