Maturity of AI to increase cybersecurity risks in 2023
…As cyber attacks increase globally in 2022 by 38 %
By Ibiyemi Mathew
Consumers are set to experience increased cybersecurity risks in 2023 as Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology matures, Check Point Research (CPR) has warned.
Omer Dembinsky, Data Group Manager at Check Point Software said, “Cyberattacks are increasing worldwide, with 38 per cent more cyberattacks per week on corporate networks in 2022, compared to 2021. Several cyber threat trends are happening simultaneously.
“For one, the ransomware ecosystem is continuing to evolve and grow with smaller, more agile criminal groups that have formed to evade law enforcement.
“Second, hackers are widening their aim to target business collaboration tools such as Slack, Teams, OneDrive, and Google Drive with phishing exploits. These make for a rich source of sensitive data given that most organisations’ employees continue to work remotely.
“Unfortunately, we expect the increase in cyberattack activity to increase. With AI technologies such as ChatGPT readily available to the public, it is possible for hackers to generate malicious code and emails at a faster, more automated pace.
“To protect yourself, it is imperative to think about prevention first, not detection. There are several best practices and actions an organisation can take to minimise their exposure to the next attack or breach. These include cybersecurity training, keeping patches up-to-date, and implementing anti-ransomware technology.”
In its new data on 2022 cyberattack trends, Global cyberattacks increased by 38 per cent in 2022, compared to 2021 with the increase steming from hacker interest in healthcare organisations, which saw the largest increase in cyberattacks in 2022, when compared to all other industries.
The cyberattack numbers were driven by smaller, more agile hacker and ransomware gangs who focused on exploiting collaboration tools used in work-from-home environments, and targeted education institutions that shifted to e-learning post COVID-19.
The global volume of cyberattacks also reached an all-time high in Q4 with an average of 1,168 weekly attacks per organisation.
The top three most attacked industries in 2022 were Education/Research, Government, and Healthcare while Africa experienced the highest volume of attacks out of any geography with 1,875 weekly attacks per organisation, followed by APAC with 1,691 weekly attacks per organisation.
