The increase in cyber-attacks has threatened the security of the organizations globally.  Regularly six out of ten organizations are encountered with an unprecedented situation of cyberattacks. Despite the robust security measures adopted by organizations, cyberattacks have increasingly permeated across the industry. A report by Accenture titled, "Innovate for Cyber Resilience" states that most organizations spend 10.9% of their IT budgets on cybersecurity programs.  Despite this on an average, organizations are faced by 27% of security breaches every year, with 11% involving direct attacks. As per a report by IBM the average total cost of a data breach accounts to US$ 3.86 million.

The United States of America is listed amongst the country bearing the maximum cost of US$8.64 million with such data breach and cyberattacks, whereas healthcare is counted as the most expensive industry with an average loss of US$ 7.13 million every year.  The average time required for identifying and containing a data breach is 280 days. This implies that most organizations do not have sufficient amount of inputs for preliminary detection of cyberattacks.

Since the year 2020 has been the most straining across organizations, the incidents of cyberattacks, security breach and data breach has also manifolded. Owing to the COVID 19, as organizations shifted to remote working, they are rendered to face an increase in cyberattacks and data breaches. Reports suggest that the cyberattacks, including ransomware and malware, have expedited by more than 200 billion this year. A Verizon report points out that 71% of security breaches are financially motivated, whereas 25% takes place with a motivation of espionage. The 52% breaches feature hacking, 28% involves malware, whereas 32-33% are performed through phishing and social engineering. In 2019, the global average cost of the data breach was recorded to be US$3.92 million.

Cyberattacks, not only impacts the financial module, but the reputation of organizations also gets threatened. With no possible relief from COVID 19, the remote working norm amongst organizations will continue. Hence, it is imperative to observe the trends that will shape the cybersecurity framework in the coming year so that organizations get readily prepared for it.

Rise of Cyber Terrorism

Cyber terrorism is usually aimed to either carry out extortion or targeting the government or government institutes for the personal agenda. Over the past years, cyber terrorism has been promptly rising, thus threatening the democracy of many countries. The incident of Marsek is a well-regaled example of cyber-terrorism. With an increase in the civil war amongst many nations, cyber terrorism will be the most challenging issue that the governments will be required to tackle.

No Relief from Data Breach and Exploitation

Data is the most important asset to understand the peculiar details about organizations. Over the past year, data breaches were amongst the top listed challenges faced by the organizations. Due to COVID-19, most organizations plan to embrace the new normal permanently. This implies that most networks will remain either less secure or insecure, thus posing no remedy from data breach and cyberattacks. It is estimated that the incidents of cyberattacks and data breach will be significantly exploiting the global market.

Increase in the Number of Cybersecurity Investments

Due to COVID 19, most organizations have realized the need for a robust cybersecurity system. An Accenture report says that 68% of organizations have realized to have advanced cybersecurity tools. Most organizations feel that artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotic process automation are the best tools to thwart cyberattacks and data breaches. Henceforth, 84% of organizations are either planning or have already invested in AI-driven cybersecurity tools. The report by Gartner has predicted the worldwide information security market to reach US$170.4 billion in 2022.

 More Demand for National Security

With the changing geopolitical diaspora, the nations will be scaling up the cybersecurity measures to thwart cyberattacks. A report by Microsoft indicates that almost 89% of the cyberattacks gets carried out to harm the sovereignty of a nation. With changing dynamics, countries will be proactively engaging into national security agenda.

Educational Institutes will be the Next Target

There is no certainty about how the year 2021 will unfold for the educational institutes. The probability that schools, universities and colleges will go back to the normal functioning is unprecedented. As online teaching is the only option to continue providing education during the COVID-19 outbreak, and with no possible security measure deployed, the educational institutes will get targeted by hackers.

Security: The Healthcare Institute's Priority

Undoubtedly, the COVID 19 outbreak has pushed healthcare institutes to take extra measures to secure their network. As reports suggest healthcare to be the most targeted sector by the hackers, many institutes will proactively deploy measures across the system that can protect the patient's data and scale-up overall security.

Advancements in Cyberattack Methods

With many AI-driven tools available, the method of carrying out an attack will get enhanced.  Most hackers and attackers will focus on getting undetected while carrying out attacks.