Check Point has released its cyber security predictions for 2022, detailing the key challenges that organisations will face over the next year.

CPR believes that supply chain attacks will become more common and governments will begin to establish regulations to address these attacks and protect networks.

They will also look into collaborating with the private sectors as well as other countries to identify and target more threat groups operating on a global and regional scale.

Supply chain attackers take advantage of a lack of monitoring within an organization’s environment. They can be used to perform any type of cyber-attack, such as data breaches and malware infections.

The well-known SolarWinds supply chain attack stands out in 2021 due to its scale and influence, but other sophisticated supply chain attacks have occurred such as Codecov in April, and most recently, Kaseya.

Kaseya provides software for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and the REvil ransomware gang exploited the company to infect over 1,000 customers with ransomware. The group demanded a ransom of $70 million to provide decryption keys for all affected customers.

Going into 2022, CPR predicts that we will see an increase in data breaches that will be larger scale. These breaches will also have the potential to cost organizations and governments more to recover. In May 2021, US insurance giant paid $40m in ransom to hackers. This was a record, with CPR expecting ransom demands by attackers to increase in 2022.

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Commenting on the predictions, Maya Horowitz, VP Research at Check Point Software says: “In 2021, cyber criminals adapted their attack strategy to exploit vaccination mandates, elections and the shift to hybrid working, to target organizations’ supply chains and networks to achieve maximum disruption.

“The sophistication and scale of cyber-attacks will continue to break records and we can expect a huge increase in the number of ransomware and mobile attacks.

“To stay ahead of threats, organisations must be proactive and leave no part of their attack surface unprotected or unmonitored, or they risk becoming the next victim of sophisticated, targeted attacks.”

CPR make other stark predictions for next year, including the weaponisation of deepfake technologies, the intensification of cyber-cold war and an increase in mobile malware attacks.

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