About a dozen reports broadly suggested that hacking incidents increased in 2023 and the year saw some major data breaches as well as ransomware attacks that impacted businesses globally. Now a report by Palo Alto Networks announced its cybersecurity predictions for 2024, and said that companies must take a holistic approach to cybersecurity to be safe.

Increased disruptive cyberattacks in 2022–2023
The cybersecurity company said that in 2023, organisations witnessed “unprecedented levels of cybercrime.”

“Palo Alto Networks’ State of Cybersecurity survey found that 67% of Indian government/essential services witnessed more than 50% increase in disruptive cyberattacks in 2022–2023,” it said. The survey also found that 75% of Indian organisations have increased their cybersecurity budgets in 2023 compared to 2022.

One of the ways for organisations to get ahead of the modern cyberattackers is predicting cybersecurity trends for 2024and work on areas such as accounting for macroeconomic factors, emerging technologies and cloud risks, among others.

“In 2023, we’ve seen mature organisations, who invest heavily in cybersecurity, still falling victim to debilitating cyberattacks. This is due to the tenacity and ingenuity of attackers who exploit cyber hygiene issues or find novel ways to compromise legacy defences,” said Ian Lim, field chief security officer, Palo Alto Networks.

“Another key reason for these breaches lies in the complexity of security capabilities in most modern organisations,” he added. Here are the five cybersecurity trends to watch out for in 2024.

Hacktivism may rise in 2024
According to the report, the numerous instances of broadcast events being disrupted by climate activists in 2023 may take the shape of a cyber-first campaign. Hacktivists may target global events like Olympics, the Euros, and regional elections, to expand their cause to larger audiences.

The report said that during the G20 Summit in India, more than 30 groups of hacktivists from neighbouring countries attacked more than 600 websites of government and private entities through DDoS attacks, defacements, and data leaks.

AI’s good and bad roles in cybersecurity will evolve
The cybersecurity company said that attackers have used generative AI in the form of deepfake and voice technology to scam banks out of millions. It added that attackers will continue to exploit innovation gaps with the increased use of generative AI for legitimate use cases.

Meanwhile, generative AI is also said to further embed itself into cybersecurity capabilities. Its ability to summarise, weed through noise and give concise summaries of security events is a positive side.

“With LLMs getting better by the day, we are bound to see more sophisticated applications that move beyond just being a clever and occasionally-hallucinating chatbot,” it added.

Operational Technology needs high level of cyber maturity
Operational Technology, which is the heart of any industrial organisation, must be protected with high-level cyber security solutions as it is the primary generator of revenue. A breach of OT systems can not only result in lost revenue, but also potentially, injuries or loss of life.

Solidify detection, response time
Organisations with disparate security teams and tools that are not well integrated take more time such as 4-6 days to detect and report an incident. This is way too long in a threat landscape. In 2024, more organisations will be focused on reducing complexities and turning to consolidated cybersecurity stacks, it said.

Securing the cloud will be high on the agenda
Lastly, organisations move to establishing a more unified approach to security when dealing with more than one cloud provider in 2024. India leads APAC in cloud migration, with 80% of businesses already having a large proportion of infrastructure on the cloud, and 42% adjusting their cybersecurity strategy to adopt cloud security, the report said.