Enterprises need to be aware of different cybersecurity trends to minimize cyber risks and secure the safety of company information. In line with keeping information safe, October, also known as Cybersecurity Awareness Month, is a time when organizations can assess their current cybersecurity practices and take note of other cybersecurity trends.Enterprises must have a stronger level of both identity assurance and authentication management.
Even big tech companies can be vulnerable to significant hacks and data breaches. The primary reason for this risk is human error, wherein employees or vendors become victims of social engineering attacks. Social engineering attacks enable a bad actor to quickly gain access to the target’s security system. Human vulnerabilities are cybersecurity trends that companies should know when evaluating Identity, Access Management, and Authentication strategies.
Currently, cyberattacks rely on a wide range of social engineering techniques that target human biases for manipulation. Different forms of phishing include unsolicited emails, texts, messages, and telephone calls that request personal, financial, and login credentials.
Implementing strong FIDO2 authentication is one of the best actions to prevent such attacks. FIDO2 is phishing-resistant due to its cryptographic security. Knowledge-based authentication methods such as passwords can cost a business their time and money, as it is today’s leading cause of security breaches and ransomware. Human-driven security vulnerabilities online also call for human factor authentication, such as biometrics identity verification for mobile banking.
Ethical considerations in biometrics are another security theme to keep in mind. As different sectors have used biometrics, there have been debates around its privacy. Companies such as ID.me, Clearview AI, and Onfido have encountered legal and political challenges due to their approaches to using biometric data.
As these companies’ actions capture the attention of different policymakers and lawmakers, they will also pave the way for better policies in the deployment and ethical biometric use.This will help protect consumers instead of exploiting them. The foundation of ethical biometrics includes explicit informed consent and implementation that does not have any biases on skin color, gender, or other characteristics. It is also crucial for biometrics to have an opt-in rather than an opt-out model for using biometrics.
The expansion of Zero Trust is another security theme to take note of. Zero Trust has been a topic in discussions in cybersecurity for a decade. But increased circumvention of multi-factor authentication (MFA), escalated supply chain and ransomware attacks, and the rise of remote work setup brought Zero Trust back into focus.
Zero Trust is a network security philosophy wherein no one inside or outside a particular network should be trusted unless their identification has been accurately checked. Zero Trust operates on the assumption that threats toa network are an omnipresent factor.
Many industries have begun adopting Zero Trust architecture.These include financial services, healthcare, and education, following the Executive Order of the White House, which declared that the government would pursue a Zero Trust strategy.
For more information about the different cybersecurity themes to keep in mind for Cybersecurity Awareness Month, visit authID through their official website at https://authid.ai.
