The end of the year is upon us, and that means predictions — lots and lots of predictions. And no wonder: With 2022 in the books, cybersecurity professionals worth their salt are starting to think about what’s around the next bend; one needs to be prepared, after all.
This year, we wanted to break out of the mold of covering predictable predictions (“more automation is on the horizon,” anyone?) to focus on some of the more out-there views on what the cybersecurity landscape might hold for the next revolution around the sun. In this, our stable of experts didn’t disappoint.
Security experts from near and far gave Dark Reading their most outrageous/boldest security predictions for 2023. Whether that’s something that will happen on the threat side of things (hackers will start WWIII), an impending crazy cyberattack (looking at you, evil Santa elves), a prediction for insane futuristic tech on the defensive side (bot vs. bot), nutty enterprise trends (spyware for employees), what have you — these crystal ball-isms will hopefully make you think about what is in store.
For instance, David Maynor, director of the Cybrary Threat Intelligence Team (CTIG), offered up a slew of hot takes for 2023 that run to the dystopian. And we’re here for it:
“Information security practitioners will continue to be divided into topics, such as active defense, to the point that pseudo-religious cults may form,” he opines. “DEF CON will be canceled. A reboot or sequel of one of the following movies will be greenlit: Hackers, Sneakers, WarGames, The Net, Swordfish.”
Nicely done, David. And that’s just the beginning.
To kick things off, Dean Agron, CEO and co-founder of Oxeye Security, flagged an impending cyberattack that’s sure to hit everyone on Santa’s list, not just the naughty ones.
Yes, he was just kidding. But it made you wonder for a minute, didn’t it? Onto the real predictions!
Sure, predicting the use of more security automation is like saying there might be more political division in Congress in the new year. But at least one of the experts we tapped took it an extra step further.
Ouch.
The idea of weaponized deep fakes becoming a go-to method for attackers was a theme for many of the bold predictions that Dark Reading received.
Others also warmed to this theme.
Roger Grimes, data-driven defense evangelist at cybersecurity company KnowBe4, points out that scary-level AI can juice the D, too.
Sometimes the dark view of AI use has to do with unintended consequences, with Maynor linking back to his WarGames reboot note.
Hmmmm, what AI chatbot could he possibly be referring to? At least one person we talked to has no qualms naming names, with a dark prediction about AI-assisted phishing.
Of course, these are early days for ChatGPT and its ilk. Imagine the risk once development really gets going.
Evil AIs are forever tied in most of our minds with taking over the world and bringing about apocalypse (save John Connor!). But some experts tell Dark Reading that the apocalypse doesn’t need to wait for the sentient robots.
Sure, the Internet disappearing overnight could cause major dysfunction, but what about a long-term lack of power?
Ian Pratt, global head of security for personal systems at HP Inc., even offers Dark Reading a potential attack vector for such a scenario.
There’s a contrarian in every bunch. Ron Fabela, CTO and co-founder at SynSaber, laid one such prediction on Dark Reading: that 2023 will be remembered for the ICS cyberwar that wasn’t.
So if fears that the Bad Guys will take out our critical infrastructure are overblown, does anything have the power to light off a firestorm of kinetic war?
Why, messing with our finances, of course.
Speaking of finances, anyone who has been following the volatile vagaries of the cybersecurity market from an M&A, valuation, and funding perspective will be aware that most analysts believe that enterprises will rapidly consolidate their cyber-defense tools under just a handful of vendor names — meaning that security Big Kahunas will just keep snapping up small fry and rivals until the choices end up very limited indeed.
Enterprises seem to want that too, according to survey after survey, given the upside in terms of interoperability and management.
Richard Stiennon, chief research analyst at IT-Harvest, says bah humbug to all that.
We would be remiss if we wrapped up without mentioning the myriad predictions that Dark Reading received regarding the future of remote and hybrid working. It isn’t going anywhere — that genie is well and truly out of the bottle, we all agree. But there’s a rather horrific side effect of that reality: The use of creepy productivity monitoring tools by employers, which for all intents and purposes, is spyware by another name, says one expert.
Silver lining alert: Hager adds that this kind of completely whacked-out employee tracking will backfire, leading to an outcome-based leadership that will have a positive effect on employee morale and company culture.
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