Forrester: AI, Cloud Computing, and Geopolitics are Emerging Cyberthreats in 2023

Wouldn’t it be great if your cybersecurity strategy only had to focus on just a few threats? Sigh… if only life were that easy. But new predictions for this year’s most prevalent cyber threats from analyst firm Forrester should help focus your efforts..

According to their newly released Top Cybersecurity Threats in 2023 (client access required), there are five threats to be concerned about. First the established threats:

• Ransomware – this has been the most pervasive threat over the last few years. With attacks on critical infrastructure, the continual evolution in multi-faceted extortion, and the growth of ransomware as a service, this threat isn’t going anywhere.
• BEC social engineering – The rise in business email compromise that uses malwareless phishing emails relying solely on social engineering is occurring due to increasing attack success.

Forrester also mentioned some evolving threats:

• AI advancements – Artificial intelligence applications such as ChatGPT are cause for concern around improved social engineering emails, as well as using AI for the poisoning of security algorithm data to reduce AI effectiveness.
• Cloud computing – Misconfigurations of cloud environments remain a concern due to complexity coupled with ineffective security controls.
• Geopolitics – The Russia-Ukraine conflict has been a source of geopolitical targeting and shows no signs of easing up.

The perceived increase in attack sophistication and frequency should be enough to motivate security teams to strive for stronger preventative stances against cyber attacks – something that should include Security Awareness Training.