The golden rule of cybersecurity is that hackers will always look for the easiest and most effective way to compromise a system or device. As organizations continue to strengthen their defenses, attackers are increasingly targeting the weakest link in the supply chain, causing widespread disruption across multiple companies and increasing their chances of winning a lucrative bounty. While many vulnerabilities were found in TCP/IP and RTOS stacks in 2020 and 2021, in 2022 cybercriminals will likely target common application layer protocol implementations and industry SDKs used in OT devices. Organizations need to collaborate closely across the supply chain, implement strong policies, and employ strong cybersecurity capabilities to protect themselves and their partners.
In recent years, the convergence of operational technology (OT) and IT has become a key industry theme. Devices and systems that are decades old and were not designed with security and modern cyberattacks in mind are suddenly connected, often with hidden vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit. With many organizations iceland mobile database operating silos between OT and IT teams, security leaders need to break down these silos and unify teams, policies, tools, and reporting to ensure the organization is holistically protected from cyberattacks targeting connected devices.
4. Zero trust
Zero trust has made a big splash this year and is set to be one of the hottest approaches in cybersecurity in the new year. At its core, a zero trust security model is incredibly powerful at preventing data breaches because it only allows devices to access the systems they need, eliminating the ability for attackers to move around the network once a device has been compromised. As this approach matures and spreads, organizations will need to ensure they are implementing the right solutions. The key to success is a combination of Policy Enforcement Point (PEP) and Policy Decision Point (PDP) solutions that implement zero trust policies at both the micro and macro levels of the ecosystem.