The last few years have been anything but ordinary, both in terms of cybersecurity and business in general. The COVID-19 pandemic has permanently altered the way business is conducted, and cybercriminals have adapted by tailoring their tactics to the new reality.

While 2020 and 2021 were exceptional for cyberattacks, there is little evidence that things will return to "normal" in 2022. Cyber threat actors have experimented with new tactics and techniques, found them effective, and added them to their arsenal.

Several cyberattack campaigns and cyber threat actors became household names in 2021, as the consequences of cyberattacks were felt far beyond their target companies. As cybercrime becomes more professionalised and cyber threat actors seek to extract maximum value or impact from their attacks, the modern threat landscape comprises larger, flashier, and higher-impact attacks.

Below, we examine the significant challenges businesses face in 2021 and what they can expect in 2022.

The following are the top cybersecurity challenges for 2022: 

1. An increase in cyberattacks-

Every year, cybercriminals focus on a particularly compelling or lucrative attack technique, such as ransomware or cryptojacking, and specific threats overgrow. However, one of the most concerning trends in 2021 was the overall increase in cybercrime.

The total number of cyberattacks will increase by 50% in 2021. Specific sectors, however, were hit harder than others, with education, research, and healthcare bearing the brunt of the damage. This indicates a focus by cyber threat actors on areas that are rapidly becoming more reliant on technology and are the least prepared to combat cyber threats.

The rapid increase in attacks bodes ill for 2022. As cyber threat actors improve their techniques and use machine learning and automation, the number and severity of attacks will only increase.

2. Supply Chain Attacks Are Increasing-

Supply chain attacks became prominent in late 2020, grew through 2021, and are expected to remain a significant threat in 2022. The discovery of the SolarWinds hack led to this trend in December 2020.

Threat actors gained access to SolarWinds' development environment and inserted backdoor code into the company's Orion network monitoring product. The discovery of the Sunburst malware triggered a lengthy investigation that revealed the details of the SolarWinds hack, multiple malware variants, and an attack campaign that affected over 18,000 public and private sector organisations.

The high-profile 2021 supply chain attacks demonstrated that it is a viable and potentially profitable attack vector for cyber threat actors. In 2022, cyber threat actors will likely increase their use of supply chain attacks to broaden their attacks' reach and impact.

3. The Cyber Pandemic Persists:

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant shift in business practices. Instead of working primarily from the corporate office, a much more substantial percentage of the workforce is now working remotely. It will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Many businesses continue to support a mostly or entirely remote workforce, and cloud adoption is increasing. Companies struggle to secure their systems and protect corporate, and customer data as cybercriminals continue to exploit the vulnerabilities and security gaps created by this rapid IT transformation.

4. Cloud Services Are a Priority:

Since the rapid transition to remote and cloud computing in 2020, businesses have had the opportunity to address many of the significant security issues caused by a sudden change with little or no planning. However, some cloud security gaps remain, and cyber threat actors continue to outpace security personnel in taking advantage of cloud computing's new role in modern business.

Many of these attacks are directed at flaws in the cloud infrastructure itself. The OMIGOD vulnerability was discovered in September 2021. Until it was patched, exploiting Microsoft's Open Management Infrastructure (OMI) software agents embedded within Azure VMs could have allowed attacks against up to 65 per cent of Azure customers.

As cloud adoption grows, so will scrutiny from ethical and cyber threat hackers. The example of 2021 indicates that more cloud security issues are likely to be discovered in 2022 and beyond.

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