Cybersecurity 2022_ The Year in Review by Seceon Thought Leadership - Seceon
                     Cybersecurity 2022: The Year in Review by Seceon Thought Leadership - 
Seceon
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Cybersecurity 2022: The 
Year in  Review by Seceon 
Thought  Leadership
by Seceon Thought Leadership | Feb 2, 2023 | aiMSSP, aiSIEM, aiXDR, Awards, Cyber 
Security  Company, Cybersecurity Solution, Ransomware Detection | 0 comments
Cybersecurity 2022: The Year in Review by Seceon Thought Leadership 
- Seceon
2022 was the year that cybersecurity affected everyone’s life 
and  lifestyle –  it adjusted the price of gas for your car, if you 
could get a  steak at a restaurant, if or when you could  see 
your doctor, and  whether or not your favorite gaming site 
compromised your personal  financial data. Increased pressure 
was applied to those who are cyber  professionals and 
practitioners borne out  of  a stricter  regulatory  climate and 
we will undoubtedly see government  and  standards  bodies 
continue to clamp down on organizations who flout  or  
minimalize their emphasis on cybersecurity.
We all know the 2022 data breach headlines (e.g Copper 
Mountain  Mining, Mizuno, Intrado, Rackspace, T-Mobile, and a 
vast global list of  public and private sector organizations). But 
what businesses need to  ask is HOW do these attacks happen 
and  what can we do to avoid  this? This is where our job as 
business risk managers needs to clearly  convey all the actions 
taken by cyber criminals to compromise digital  assets and 
what we need to do to protect our organizations and be  
resilient (protect, detect and recover) from attack.
Let’s start out by using ransomware as the “Badness-o-meter” 
of  Cybersecurity, that is using the pervasiveness and impact of 
this  economic crime as the measure of improving or declining 
effectiveness  in our industry. We often don’t know what, or if, a 
ransom was paid.  There are many instances, as in Colonial 
Pipeline in 2021, where we  know that the $4.4 million ransom 
was paid.  Paying a ransom  shows  an extreme failure in your 
resilience, preparedness,  and  readiness.  Let’s not forget top 
threat actors are very well funded and  in many  cases, 
attackers are doing significant research to understand what an  
organization is able to pay, in order to increase the likelihood of 
the  payment amount demanded by the extortioner.
We do know this. That the number of organizations globally 
that were  victimized by ransomware rose slightly to 66% in 
2022 (an increase of  3% over 2021). 68% of those victims 
paid the ransom in 2022, a  decrease of 19% from 2021. This 
is an important improvement but  almost seven of every ten 
is still very high.
Cybersecurity 2022: The Year in Review by Seceon Thought Leadership - 
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16% of organizations have been hit 3+ times with  ransomware 
 indicating a lack of cybersecurity fundamentals and hygiene in 
those  organizations along with neglecting to take the 
remedial steps needed  to not be a repeat victim. 56% of those 
attacked lost revenue, 50% lost  customers and 43% had 
significant reputation and credibility loss.
What we clearly see in 2022 are larger individual attacks than 
ever  before. 11% of ransomware attacks had their extortion 
dollar figures  exceed $1 million in 2022 with an overall 
average ransom of $220,298  for the full year. However, the 
ransom payment amount is miniscule  compared to the recovery 
and  impact cost of $4.54 million in 2022,  down just a bit from 
$4.62 million in 2021.
Global Ransomware damage costs (again, not the  ransom  
amount  itself) are expected to move to $265 billion by 2031  
putting  ransomware in the top 50 of  Gross National  Product 
sizes in the  world.
Lastly, according to the World Economic Forum ( WEF), “by 
2025, it’s  estimated that 463 exabytes of data will be 
created each day globally
–  that’s the equivalent of 212,765,957 DVDs per day!” But as 
more  data is produced and the value of data (often categorized 
as “cost per  record”) skyrockets, we can only expect that more 
bad actors will  attempt to successfully exploit the emerging  
threat vector brought on  by surging data volumes. As  
billionaire  Warren Buffett once noted,  data is clearly the new 
oil.
Though some of these statistics are moving  in an improved 
direction,  the increasing sophistication of cybercriminals 
adding Artificial  Intelligence (AI) to their endless array of zero-
day exploits and social  engineering attacks is absolutely 
terrifying. Research firm Cybersecurity  Ventures now predicts 
that there will be a new ransomware  attack  every 2 seconds 
(down from 11 seconds at the beginning of 2022) as  
ransomware perpetrators continue to refine  their  malware  
payloads  and related extortion activities.
Furthermore, operational attack surfaces and privacy/PII 
targeted  attacks are increasing mainly as millions more IoT, 
IoMT, IIoT devices  come online, with some estimates at more 
than 50 billion devices  globlly by 2030, as well as countless 
organizations operating in hybrid
Cybersecurity 2022: The Year in Review by Seceon Thought Leadership - 
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fashion (cloud and on-prem) with a largely remote workforce in 
the  aftermath of the 2020-2021 pandemic.
Now lets look deeper at what we at Seceon predicted for 2022, 
then  let’s look at what we predict is going to happen in 2023. 
Thanks for  joining us on this journey!
2022 Seceon Prediction One: We wi l l  see 
High  Employee turnover in cybersecurity 
wi th   recruitment and staffi ng 
continuing to be a  major issue on a 
global scale
In 2022, the global cybersecurity industry saw a dramatic rise 
in  employee turnover. This was due to an increasingly 
competitive job  market, with a large number of qualified 
candidates competing for the  same jobs. Companies had to 
adjust their hiring strategies to  stay  ahead of the competition 
and recruit the best talent. ISC2 currently  estimates the 
workforce gap at 3.1 million professionals worldwide.  There
appears  to  be a shift  in entry  paths  for  those
newer to  cybersecurity. 26% of pros with less than 3 years 
experience started in  a field other than IT or cyber, whereas 
just 1 in 5, 20% with 8 or more  years of cyber experience 
started in a field other than IT or cyber.
Moreover, we have a divide in the cyber workforce with most 
graduates  from colleges and universities moving toward 
technical areas in  cybersecurity, with very few in the domain of 
Governance, Risk and  Compliance (GRC), at a time when the 
biggest need is in GRC. This is a  significant risk. Talent is 
scarce. If you can’t obtain the skillsets you  need to effectively 
manage cyber risk, then your cyber risk will go  unmitigated, 
which will lead to exposures, high cost of insurance (or  loss of 
insurance), and leave you open to attacks, ransoms and data  
breaches. According to ISC2, 57% of organizations have unfilled 
roles  they cannot find a suitable pool of candidates.
Additionally, the emergence of cloud-based technology
and  automation meant that many of the traditional roles in 
cybersecurity  needed to evolve with only some of the 
existing workforce making the  journey with others leaving 
their positions in search of new  opportunities. Despite these 
shifts, the demand for cybersecurity
Cybersecurity 2022: The Year in Review by Seceon Thought Leadership - 
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professionals continued to grow, and the industry remained one 
of the  most sought-after sectors in the tech industry with zero 
percent  unemployment for job seekers.
2022 Seceon Prediction Two: Expect 
additional  Compliance Requirements
Companies around the world saw an increased emphasis  on  
compliance across industries. This included more stringent  
requirements for data security, privacy, and compliance with a 
range of  laws, regulations, and standards. Organizations of all 
sizes, from small  businesses to large corporations, had to 
adhere  to  increasingly  complex regulations and policies 
regarding the protection of personal  data and the handling of 
sensitive information. Companies also had to  take extra 
measures to ensure their systems were protected from  
cyberattacks and other malicious activities. In turn, 
cybersecurity  professionals had to stay up-to-date with the 
latest security standards  and technologies, as well as ensure 
their systems were compliant with  new and existing 
regulations. Businesses had to invest in new  technologies and 
strategies to meet the new requirements, such as  cloud 
computing, threat intelligence, and artificial intelligence. 
Overall,  the focus on compliance in 2022 resulted in a 
heightened awareness  on cybersecurity threats and a stronger 
sense of responsibility among  all stakeholders. Boards of 
Directors are now asking questions about  cyber threats, 
capabilities, and what they can do to help guide their  
constituent companies, especially in this area we call risk 
management  and establishing the fact that compliance is non-
negotiable. Executive  Order 14028, the recent revisions in the 
FTC Safeguards Rule, the  adoption of several state privacy 
initiatives (California CPRA, Colorado,  Connecticut, Utah 
Virginia), and recent directives from CISA are all  indicative of 
increased scrutiny and legislative action to require  adherence 
to sound cybersecurity and privacy practice.
2022 Seceon Prediction Three : The quality of AI 
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AI-powered cybersecurity technology continued to advance 
at a rapid
Cybersecurity 2022: The Year in Review by Seceon Thought Leadership - 
Seceon
such as machine learning and predictive analytics, were used to 
better  identify and block malicious activities. At the same time, 
cloud-based  security solutions were further developed and 
adopted, allowing  organizations to better protect their data 
and systems. Cloud-based  solutions made it easier to detect 
and contain threats, as well as to  quickly respond to incidents. 
The adoption  of  zero-trust  security  models also saw a surge 
in popularity in 2022. This model is based on  always verifying 
user identity and access rights, rather than trusting  users who 
are already in the system. This helped organizations keep  their 
data and systems secure even when they were accessed from  
outside their networks. Finally, the use of encryption and 
tokenization  also became more widespread in 2022. These 
security measures help  protect data from being accessed or 
stolen, even if the data is  intercepted. Further, math applied to 
use cases, should result in a more  efficient and effective SOC 
with less alerts and noise being generated.  AI also offers the 
advantage of supplying  a system of  measure by  using 
security analytics to measure risk in a probabilistic manner,  
overcoming the challenge of not being able to quantify the  
likelihood  and impact that a threat can be imposed on an 
environment.
Tomorrow, we will introduce our 2023 Cybersecurity Predictions 
in Part  II of our blog. We look forward to your feedback and 
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