Cybersecurity trends in 2023 that will directly impact daily life

In February 2023, the Bipartisan Policy Center published a report entitled “Top Risks in Cybersecurity 2023.” In the report, the working group of leaders from every sector with a stake in cybersecurity identified the top eight macro cybersecurity risks for 2023 as follows:

1. Evolving Geopolitical Environment
2. Accelerating Cyber Arms Race
3. Global Economic Headwinds
4. Overlapping, Conflicting, and Subjective Regulations
5. Lagging Corporate Governance
6. Lack of Investment, Preparedness, and Resilience
7. Vulnerable Infrastructure
8. Talent Scarcity

The group framed the risks for the strategic audience of business and government decision-makers and focused on the risks themselves, not the solutions.

These are major trends in cybercrime, which is the only reason cybersecurity exists.

We will take a look at many of these risks in separate articles since each is a major subject, but for now we wanted to trace which of these risks and trends have a direct impact on the daily life of the average citizen – those of us who are not CISOs or board members of major enterprises or responsible for cybersecurity in an SMB or government agency.

State-sponsored threats spell disruption

Geopolitical tension prompts state-sponsored cyberattacks which usually take the form of covert intelligence gathering, attacks on critical infrastructure and intellectual property theft (depending on which state is doing the sponsoring). As geopolitical tensions grow, sparked mainly by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and worsening relations between China and the West, so the state-sponsored threats increase in a sort of rippling effect involving more and more innocent bystanders. They can also interfere with political, financial and military activities of the target nations.

According to the Bipartisan Policy Center report, “Attacks on undersea cables and basic infrastructure, such as utilities and logistics, can have enormous repercussions for a region or even the entire world. These types of attacks increased in 2022 and remain a top risk going into 2023.”

Ransomware – more disruption

Ransomware is also on the rise. Schools and the healthcare system are frequent targets of these attacks.

Both types of cybercrime can seriously impact and disrupt the everyday life of everyone connected directly or indirectly with the attack.

Paying the cybercrime bill

According to Canalys’ latest cybersecurity forecasts, global cybersecurity spending, including enterprise products and services will increase by 13.2% in 2023 and is expected to reach $223.8 billion at best.

Who pays the bill? In the end it is the customer, the consumer, the end user that absorbs the extra cost. And that is particularly onerous at a time when inflation is already very high. In that respect, it’s no different from oil prices going up – the end user/consumer ends up paying surcharges on shipping and so on and absorbs the extra costs.

What can be done?

There’s not much of a silver lining in the cybercrime cloud bank. But there are things that can be done.

For you and me in every day life it means a heightened level of awareness and taking cybersecurity measures so that we can continue to profit from great technical advances without becoming victims of the use of these same advances by cybercriminals.

Take passwords, two-factor authentication and other precautions seriously.

Be aware of phishing in all its forms and don’t click on that link or download that file if you don’t know and trust the source, no matter how many millions you have suddenly inherited.

Get wised up on the subject. The better you understand cybercrime, the less likely you are to fall for it.

Check out a company’s cybersecurity record and stance before you deal with that company. How do they safeguard your personal information? What sort of reputation do they have?

Cybercrime is a serious threat which does impact our daily lives. It’s gaining in terms of numbers and sophistication of attacks. Take precautions accordingly.