Email is still being the gateway to huge amounts of malware, as well as the target of any attack based on social engineering. Through e-mail we can find infected files, troyans, fraudulent web links, or a story that trap you and eventually leads to become a victim of an scam.
The main reason for cybercriminal to lead their efforts to email is, infact, that we manage it, employees. We are, I amsorry to say that, the weakest link of the chain. We are fallible, sometimes absent-minded, sometimes we miss a step because we have not correctly understand a e-mail and we access an attached file without taking precautions.
There is the key: the people. Besides, e-mail is still being one of the main tools on a company, through which we not only exchange messages, but also interchange files on a less secure way that with other procedures. Other people share sensitive information on their email, as bank data, passwords an other things. By this reason, trends on cybersecurity in 2022 clarly point to email as one of the prominent threats and with greater “projection” during the following months.
Those are the more relevant trends on security in 2022
· Use a security copy of the email. Email is the most universal ofimatic tool and losing your email file can have a major impact on your organisation, this can lead to productivity losses or even legal and reputational problems. To avoid this, it is essential to be able to automatically back up your email inboxes.
· Email spoofing (creation of email messages with a false sender) is the biggest cybersecurity concern today. According to a report of Mimecast, a 84% of respondents (among 1.025 IT managers) are concerned about this attack. A 49% think it is a growing trend.
· Email scams related to COVID-19 will get on growing. Unfortunately, with the worring situation worldwide related to the pandemic, cybercriminals will continue to take advantage of people who are otherwise much more susceptible to an email phising scam which offers a cure for the virus or that “select” us to try a new vaccine.
· Compromising an email account is very easy. Not for nothing, “phishing kits” exist for sale on Dark Web for a meagre of 300 dollars with the needed tools to enter in almost any email account. At these prices is not surprising that it will become a major trend in 2022.
· Ransonware will maintain its upward trend (and will do so for a long time to come). It is an attack with a very attractive return of investment. It is an easy way to get money and in that respect it is no different from the physical abduction of people, for instance.
· The AI will be the main tool to beat advanced threats for email. It is necessary to have tools capable to see forward the malicious contents, that is why new machine learning algorithms will be crucial for combating cybercrime, also on the email field.
· Companies related to healt and genetic studies will be the main objectives. Health and genetic investigation companies have become juicy targets for criminals, as they can get a lot of information about their consumers, including email accounts. Phishing and malware attacks against these companies and databases can be expected to increase.
· Attacks that take advantage of misconfigured security will be the major problem in 2022. Misconfigurations are a never-ending source of problems for companies, and email is not an exception.