4 Major Cyber Security Threats to Businesses in 2023, and How to Prepare for Them

Stéphane Nappo, a chief information security officer, once said: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and a few minutes of cyber-incident to ruin it.”

Nowadays, companies are more attuned to this fact than ever before. A critical flaw that is not patched up in time can cost a business millions of dollars.

True. They have the best security solutions at their disposal. Security companies that specialize in specific threats such as ransomware and the protection of vulnerable technology such as IoT and low-code websites are popping up left and right.

But businesses also need to combat the lack of security professionals. Understaffed security teams on the first lines of defense are up against an overwhelming number of cyber threats.

With cyber security being a major concern and a challenge for any company, it can be difficult to decide where to even begin.

Here, we start with the critical threats.

From AI-powered malware to automated phishing schemes, what are some of the top cyber concerns you should know about in 2023?

1. Phishing Schemes

In 2022, over 92% of surveyed businesses admitted they had fallen for a phishing scam. Most data breaches for companies start with phishing emails. 

The process is pretty straightforward. The recipient unknowingly clicks on a link that leads to a malicious site or downloads malware hidden within an attachment.

In other cases, the bad actor convinces the recipient to wire them money or send their credentials via email.

How does this happen? Scammers can use social media to find out everything about employees (who they are and how they talk), and businesses to impersonate managers within the company.

The fact is, most employees are swamped with daily emails and are likely to send their data via email if they’re convinced they’re talking to their boss.

Social engineering is not going anywhere anytime soon. It can happen via text messages, phone calls, or social media.

How to reduce the chance of a successful phishing scheme?

Start with:

• Phishing awareness training for your employee’s
• Advanced email filtering — most of the phishing occurs via email

2. Ransomware

In 2022, over 70% of organizations stated that they had been the victim of ransomware. 

Threat actors use this type of malware to encrypt documents. Then, they demand ransom in exchange for the keys within which the company can restore data.

Over the last couple of years, there has been a rising number of ransomware cases. Cybersecurity professionals expect the next few years will count even more.

In 2017, the WannaCry ransomware case showed criminals how profitable the ransomware can be.

High-profile cases are linked with active groups of hackers, organized criminals that use their version of ransomware to target businesses. Active groups include BlackCat (ALPHV), LockBit, and ViseSociety.

They aim at high-ticket companies that can pay costly ransoms.

Besides locking you from important files or an entire network, ransomware is followed up with additional pressure from the criminals. They threaten to sell sensitive user data or delete your files. They initiate other types of attacks.

Steps you can take to prevent successful ransomware as a business are:

• Update all of your devices regularly to avoid vulnerabilities that can lead to successful ransomware deployment
• Use specialized security solutions that can detect the ransomware
• Protect a business against social engineering — most ransomware cases begin with phishing email

3. Malware

Malicious software (AKA malware) makes for a large number of threats that businesses face every day. This includes worms and Trojans. In 2022, there were over 5.5 billion malware attacks.

This security issue remains relevant because there are many new types of malware in the wild today.

Many of them fall under the category of zero-day threats. Businesses don’t have the necessary defenses for them because we’re talking about the new types of software that can bypass detection.

What can your organization do about malware?

• Add software that can detect and block versatile types of malware — both coming from the web and external devices such as USB
• Block ads that an employee could click and accidentally install malware on a work device
• Apply the best practices to prevent phishing — most malware spreads that way

4. AI-Powered Cyber Threats

AI has opened up a world of opportunities for criminals, even those who lack sophisticated hacking skills. We are yet to find out the full extent of how AI can be used in the name of cybercrime.

For instance, threat actors can write their phishing emails using Chat GPT, unleash automated phishing scams, utilize AI to detect weaknesses that can be exploited for hacking, or use it to guess passwords and credit card numbers.

With the rising popularity of the language processing model Chat GPT, criminals are realizing the potential of artificial intelligence.

What can you do to prevent AI-based cyber threats?

• Fight AI with AI — deploy AI-powered solutions to keep track of the growing attacks surface at all times
• Train employees to be wary of AI threats — usually, AI criminals will target the weakest link in security (unsuspected employees) first

Final Word

Cybersecurity refers to protecting all of the software from possible cyber breaches but also preventing hackers from exploiting people who have access to your network.

In practice, it’s an overwhelming and never-ending task for modern companies. 

Where to even start?

Many prominent cybersecurity issues can be prevented with proper cyber hygiene, regular password changes, updates of your devices to the safest versions, and patching up critical flaws.

Everything comes down to phishing. Whether we discuss malware or AI, hackers use scam emails to gain initial access to the company.

New zero-day threats are something a business can’t easily anticipate. They’re challenging to protect against.

Create layers of security solutions to guard your business against versatile attacks. Then focus on the weakest parts of any corporate security and protect your business against social engineering.