Use these predictions to trigger a discussion with your clients and prospects
By now you should know James Morrison, since he’s hosted a few virtual webinars and is fresh off touring some key markets in the East region. In case you don’t, his official title is “National Cybersecurity Specialist,” but we affectionately refer to him as THE Cybersecurity Guru.
As we close out the year, we asked James to share a few of his predictions for 2023.
1. Vulnerabilities will reduce in quantity whilst increasing in severity
Hackers are looking to gain complete access to the environment. It is crucial that organizations patch low vulnerabilities and mitigate high vulnerabilities.
2. Global events will continue to complicate the threat landscape
Wars, data breaches and work from home all threaten the cybersecurity landscape. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led to many damaging cyber-attacks. Marriott and Capital One are a couple of the many companies that faced data breaches this last year. And work from home increases risk of cyber-attacks due to unsecured servers.
3. Multi-factor Authentication (“MFA”) will become a more common security practice, and threat actors will look for more ways to bypass these services
You know MFA, that (annoying) multi-step authenticator that prompts you every time you log into your email. While annoying in the short term, MFA has long term benefits to organizations by protecting employees from being hacked. 57 percent of companies in the world use MFA and James foresees that MFA becoming the norm and hackers finding more ways to bypass these services.
4. The use of information-stealers will continue as substantial year-over-year growth continues
“Information-stealers” is where malware resides in an infected computer and gathers data in order to send it to the attacker. The most common infection method is through Trojan, where the malware disguises itself as code or software.
5. US governmental compliance requirements will grow
There are several regulations that touch on cybersecurity (i.e., SOX, GLBA). The governmental agencies responsible for these (SEC, FTC) have shown signs of expanding regulations to cover new markets or are expanding requirements into the markets already covered. They’re also enforcing these regulations and slapping organizations with huge fines for noncompliance.
6. Insurance underwriters will formalize how to quantify risk factors for cybersecurity insurance
Currently, each insurance underwriter bills cybersecurity insurance using their own formula. After years of underwriting these policies, insurance companies now understand what behaviors reduce risk, and they are beginning to set expectations from companies hoping to be insured.
7. The cybersecurity marketplace will compress as Suppliers look to acquire companies and technologies to fill gaps in their portfolios
Comcast acquired Masergy this past year to strengthen their security play. Other Comcast-like companies are expected to acquire cybersecurity companies, thus compressing the marketplace.
8. Ransomware will continue to be used to target schools, municipalities and businesses but expand to include nonprofits and charities
The Costa Rican government, Toyota and Bernalillo County, New Mexico made headlines this past year for ransomware attacks. With the growing number of work from home employees, ransomware attacks are happening more frequently and can happen to an organization of any size. In 2021 alone, ransomware attacks netted out over $1 billion. James predicts that nonprofits and charities will be the next target of attacks in 2023. Nonprofits are exposed to the same cyber threats as any other organization but underestimate their exposure thinking they are not big targets. However, nonprofits hold a lot of people’s personal data and banking information which leaves them vulnerable.
Use these cybersecurity predictions to trigger a discussion with your customers and don’t forget about all the assets we’ve created for you in Intelisys University. If you have any questions or want additional information on selling cybersecurity to clients, don’t hesitate to reach out to James directly.
iU Cybersecurity Marketing Resources:
Comcast Marketing Playbook (Cybersecurity focused email drip campaign)
