It was a cold autumn morning in September 2023. A mid-level executive going through e-mails stumbles upon a mail from ‘Ryushi’. The cryptic message informs the exec that X, formerly known as Twitter, has been hacked, and the hacker has access to approximately 200 million user emails. A ransom of $200,000 is requested to ensure that everything goes away and the compromised emails are deleted. Like X, approximately 85% of enterprises experienced different levels of cybersecurity incidents that disrupted operations…and the percentage of incidents is expected to increase in 2024.
As problematic as the above statistic is, it's not all gloom and doom. Gaining insight into the cybersecurity and threat landscape of 2024 will help you mitigate today’s challenges. This post will:
- Discuss the challenges organizations are expected to face from bad actors.
- Provide insight into how organizations can deal with these cybersecurity challenges.
- Introduce the importance of AI-driven cybersecurity solutions.
Cybersecurity Risk Analysis for 2024
Categorizing the security risks facing enterprise architecture simplifies assessing the challenges organizations face. Here, the categorizations used include risks to open-source and proprietary software or applications.
Open-source Security Vulnerabilities
An Assessment of 1,703 codebases by Synopsys highlighted diverse vulnerabilities with open-source components that can and have been exploited. According to the research, 54% of codebases have conflicting security licenses, 91% have components that have not been updated in 2 years, and 89% have not been updated in 4 years. Furthermore, 48% of codebases contained high-risk vulnerabilities that hackers have exploited. It is important to note that high-risk vulnerabilities refer to vulnerabilities with recorded exploitation incidents.
Today, approximately 96% of organizations utilize open-source codebases in different capacities. Surprisingly, only 34% of organizations reported scenarios where high-risk vulnerabilities have been exploited, but there’s a caveat. Approximately 35% of organizations have no idea if they’ve been hacked due to the lack of implemented security measures.
Proprietary Applications Security Vulnerabilities
While the war about the better option between proprietary and open-source applications continues, none are spared from security vulnerabilities. Proprietary software struggles with vulnerabilities such as the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) vulnerability that is difficult to detect once installed and the feared Zero-day vulnerabilities that can go undetected for the lifespan of both hardware and software.
Although there are no hard statistics on the vulnerability of proprietary software, as every owner protects their platform’s reputation, 89% of enterprises believe that open source is the more secure option. This means that both options come with significant cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
Analyzing the Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities by Industry
The ongoing digital transformation drive across all industries has led to adopting opensource solutions to ease the process. Hence, to varying degrees, every industry is affected by the vulnerabilities associated with open-source and proprietary solutions. The aerospace, aviation, automotive, transportation, and logistics industries are the most vulnerable to cybersecurity threats due to their extensive use of open-source codebases or solutions. 100% of the codebases used within these industries contained open-source components, and approximately 63% of codes used contained high-risk vulnerabilities.
The energy and clean tech sector, alongside the healthcare industry, also utilize open-source components within their digital technologies to a high degree. 95% of enterprises within these sectors utilize open-source codebases and components, and approximately 69% of codes contain high-risk vulnerabilities. The industries with the most minor use of digital technologies also leveraged open-source technology to a high degree. Approximately 92% of the manufacturing, construction, and industrial engineering codebases utilize open-source components. 45% of codes used within these industries contain high-risk vulnerabilities.
Across these industries, cybersecurity incidents are expected to increase, and the cost of successful attacks is predicted to grow by 15% in 2024. AI-driven attacks are also likely to add a new dimension to the threats enterprises will face. Examples include the automation of DDoS attacks and the delivery of ransomware to make attacks more sophisticated, adaptive, and persistent.
Successfully Navigating Today’s Cybersecurity Landscape
Countering the increased cybersecurity threat levels in 2024 requires the application of both established and new strategies to beat the ever-changing attack process employed by bad actors. Here, we present a list of methods and technologies that reduce the threat level to enterprise IT infrastructure.
- Secure or Security by Default – DevSecOps teams and cybersecurity agencies recommend integrating security by default when building software. This approach recommends embedding security features or iterative testing when developing applications rather than as a follow-up process separate from the development phase. Regarding real-world implementation, the developer or security teams pen-test every tool, open-source or otherwise, used in developing an app. This ensures high-risk vulnerabilities are discovered and eliminated before deploying the software.
- AI as a Threat Intelligence Tool – AI is adept at applying extensive predictive, inferential, and prescriptive analysis to provide insight into solving specific challenges. Today, this capability is used to recognize patterns, analyze large datasets of cybersecurity incidents, or monitor the dark web. Futuristic AI applications include automating real-time incident response and creating threat-specific incident response plans to minimize disruptions. The ability to train neural networks also increases the accuracy of AI applications and the ability to predict incidents before they occur.
- Implementing Strict Data Privacy Regulations – Across the US and the EU, ensuring data privacy across consumer and enterprise items has become a priority. The EU GDPR is a compulsory data privacy regulatory framework that, when followed, reduces the vulnerability of IT systems – software, databases, apps, hardware, etc. In the US, The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) also provides diverse security frameworks DevOps teams can leverage to future-proof software applications from threats. These regulatory frameworks recommend leveraging encryption, multi-factor authentication, and access restrictions to protect data.
- Manage Open-source Vulnerabilities – You can apply two methods to reduce the vulnerabilities associated with open-source codebases and components. First, create or request the software bill of materials (SBOM) used. Documenting all components used ensures you can trace, or research high-risk vulnerabilities known to these components. Secondly, conducting extensive pen tests or vulnerability scans on the open-source component helps discover and mitigate cybersecurity threats.
Conclusion
Staying on top of the dynamic threat landscape outlined above requires constant vigilance. Applying the tips above will give your enterprise the tools and solutions to hunt for threats and respond to cybersecurity incidents proactively.