DXC Technology has forecast five ways the digital security landscape will impact life and business in 2023 and beyond. Here’re the top 5 trends, according to the company. 

1. The cybersecurity arms race will accelerate

Cybercriminals and cybersecurity professionals will both use artificial intelligence (AI) in an increasingly sophisticated battle of wits. In the case of cybersecurity defense, AI has been mainly used to identify patterns of suspicious behavior. Due to the volume of suspect activity and the number of false positives, cybersecurity staff are often overwhelmed.

The good news is that in 2023 and beyond, we should be able to start automating AI-based security controls and response mechanisms – helping to react faster and more accurately to cyberattacks, reducing possible downtime and protecting personal and business critical data.

2. We’ll need to be cautious about who we think we’re talking to in the metaverse (while keeping a firm hold of our digital wallets)

2023 is set to be important year for the metaverse with Meta, Microsoft, Virbela and others counting on virtual worlds going mainstream. However, activity in the metaverse can raise questions around identity; how do you know that the person you think you are talking to is who they say they are? Digital certificates, perhaps built on the blockchain, could help. These certificates could also be used to secure virtual transactions in the metaverse. What is clear is that as the metaverse expands, so too will the risks.

3. Geo-political cybersecurity attacks will increase but also lead to innovation in defense

Russia’s attack on Ukraine has reminded us in the starkest way possible that warfare is now hybrid and the risks of geopolitically motivated cyberattacks are real. As a result, many cyber insurance policies are now being written to exclude acts of cyberwar, creating challenges for cyber risk mitigation.

With lingering geopolitical tensions, this threat is set to continue in 2023. In fact, with more than 70 countries due to hold government elections in 2023 (events frequently targeted by state-sponsored actors), it will be a challenging year for cybersecurity defenses. However, we can learn from case studies such as Ukraine’s ‘exemplary’ defense against Russian cyberattacks.

4. Cybersecurity attacks will target critical national infrastructure that supplies our homes

When the lights go out or the gas is cut, most people are unlikely to think it’s the result of an industrial cybersecurity breach. But Operational Technology (OT) is an emerging battleground for cyberattacks, with the systems that control and automate factories and civil infrastructure (including power stations and dams) becoming a target.

With ongoing geopolitical tensions, the OT cyber threat will grow in 2023 putting pressure on industries to ensure they stay one step ahead by baking in cybersecurity protection across their operations.

5. Career opportunities in cybersecurity will grow

There is an estimated global shortfall of around 3.4 million cybersecurity workers. With growing threats from advanced technologies, this number is likely to increase.

The cyber skills gap creates career opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds. 

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A new research from SASE vendor Netskope, shows that over 400 distinct cloud applications delivered malware in 2022, nearly triple the amount seen in the prior year. Netskope researchers also found that 30% of all cloud malware downloads in 2022 originated from Microsoft OneDrive.

“Attackers are increasingly abusing business-critical cloud apps to deliver malware by bypassing inadequate security controls,” said Ray Canzanese, Threat Research Director, Netskope Threat Labs. “That is why it is imperative that more organizations inspect all HTTP and HTTPS traffic, including traffic for popular cloud apps, both company and personal instances, for malicious content.”

Rise in Uploads to Cloud Apps Means Rise in Malware-Delivered Downloads 

The most significant change in cloud application use in 2022, compared to 2021, was the marked increase in the percentage of users uploading content to the cloud. According to Netskope data, over 25% of users worldwide uploaded documents daily to Microsoft OneDrive, while 7% did so for Google Gmail and 5% for Microsoft Sharepoint. The drastic increase in active cloud users across a record number of cloud applications led to a sizable increase in cloud malware downloads in 2022 from 2021, after remaining close to flat in 2021 compared to 2020.

The correlation between uploads and downloads among the most popular apps is no coincidence. Nearly a third of all cloud malware downloads originated from Microsoft OneDrive, with Weebly and GitHub coming in the next closest among cloud apps at 8.6% and 7.6%, respectively. 

Cloud-delivered malware is more prevalent than web-delivered malware

Industries have increased their reliance on cloud applications and cloud infrastructure to support business operations over the last several years—a trend further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and a worldwide shift toward hybrid work. As a result, cloud-delivered malware is now responsible for a much higher percentage of all malware delivery than ever before, especially in certain geographic regions and industries.

In 2022, several geographic regions saw significant increases in the overall percentage of cloud vs. web-delivered malware compared to 2021, including:

• Australia (50% in 2022 compared to 40% in 2021)
• Europe (42% in 2022 compared to 31% in 2021)
• Africa (42% in 2022 compared to 35% in 2021)
• Asia (45% in 2022 compared to 39% in 2021)

In certain industries, cloud-delivered malware also became more predominant globally, especially:

• Telecom (81% in 2022 compared to 59% in 2021)
• Manufacturing (36% in 2022 compared to 17% in 2021)
• Retail (57% in 2022 compared to 47% in 2021)
• Healthcare (54% in 2022 compared to 39% in 2021)

Cyber Preparedness: The Remote Workforce is Here to Stay

Companies have made considerable adjustments to enable remote and hybrid workplaces to flourish. While some industries sought to bring employees back to the office on a more frequent basis in 2022, remote work options appear to remain largely in place. According to Netskope data, user dispersion—the ratio of the number of users on the Netskope platform to the number of network locations from which those users’ traffic originates—is 66%, the same percentage it was at the start of the pandemic over two years ago.

Remote and hybrid work dynamics continue to pose multiple cybersecurity challenges, including how to securely provide users access to the company resources they need to do their jobs and how to scalably and securely provide users access to the internet.

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The 2023 State of AI Infrastructure Survey, commissioned by Run:ai, sheds light on the growing challenges faced by organizations in AI development. The survey, which was conducted by Global Surveyz Research and gathered responses from 450 industry professionals across the US and Western EU, reveals that infrastructure and compute, chosen by 54% and 43% of respondents respectively, are now the primary hurdles, surpassing data as the key challenge facing AI development. This marks a shift compared to last year’s survey by Run:ai, where the largest number of respondents – 61% cited data as their top challenge.

The survey also pointed to another shift over the past year as the number of organizations deploying less than half of their AI models in production increased from 77%, according to last year’s survey, to 88% this year. Weighted for average, just 37% of AI models make it into production.

The adoption of cloud services for AI infrastructure continues to rise, with 73% of surveyed organizations using cloud services. However, the survey found a significant challenge in accessing GPU compute, as only 28% of respondents reported having timely and sufficient access to compute power upon demand. This shortage of on-demand access leads to frequent GPU allocation issues for 89% of respondents who use a ticketing system.

“Despite being on the cloud, organizations are still facing limitations with unlocking the full potential of their data,” said Omri Geller, CEO of Run:ai. “This highlights the reality that cloud hasn’t delivered on its on-demand promise and the importance of building a robust and scalable infrastructure.”

The survey also found that as organizations scale and require more GPUs, they face a proliferation of third-party tools, making it increasingly complex to manage AI infrastructure and get the most out of it. 77% of respondents indicated they are using multiple third-party tools, making it difficult to get the right amount of compute to different workloads and end-users.

“Organizations must shift their focus from solely acquiring more data to ensuring they have the proper infrastructure in place to effectively process and utilize it,” added Geller.

Some other findings of the survey:

• 91% of companies are planning to increase their GPU capacity or other AI infrastructure by an average of 23% in the next 12 months. This shows that despite the uncertain economic climate, companies are still investing in AI due to the potential and value they see in it.

• 50% of companies plan to implement monitoring, observability, and explainability in the next 6-12 months to keep track of their AI models.

• The second and third priorities were model deployment and serving (44%) and orchestration and pipelines (34%). This indicates that companies are focused on bringing their AI models into production and streamlining the process to make it more efficient.

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