As you look back on the state of cybersecurity in 2022 and set your security priorities for 2023, Zero Trust Data Access should top your New Year’s Resolutions list. Zero trust was probably the most talked about security trend last year and for good reason – it is clear no matter how much we layer our defenses hackers, malicious insiders and simple negligence are impossible to eradicate.

I am often struck by the similarities in the skill set required for both parenting and cybersecurity. With children—as with employees—it is much easier to keep everyone safe if you have a little bit of visibility into what’s actually going on. The hardest child to parent effectively is one who shuts themselves away in their bedroom, operating in isolation and giving no clues as to the risks they may be exposing themselves to.

Data leaks are a popular attack vector for cybercriminals. They’re considered a shortcut to accessing valuable sensitive data without needing to carry out sophisticated cyber attacks. Once an attacker discovers a data leak, they can exploit it immediately. Organizations must be vigilant against internal and third-party data leaks. Otherwise, they risk leaving an instant pathway to costly data breaches exposed.

‍ Without a doubt, data privacy will be a much bigger focus for small- and medium-sized businesses in 2023, as the U.S. states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia all enact stricter privacy legislation. Similarly, the Canadian province of Quebec is also in the process of updating its data privacy laws.

He sees you when you're sleeping, and he knows when you're awake, and we're just supposed to be ok with that? He's making a list and checking it twice, but what kind of information is on that list? Does the big man in red store all the massive amounts of data he collects securely, or can all the elves peruse it at their leisure? Let's face it, Santa Claus is a huge security risk and a privacy nightmare. How does he get away with these massive breaches of your right to privacy year after year?

Almost every day we hear of another data breach. There has been no shortage of headline-hitting breaches here in Australia, such as Medibank and Optus. The old-school method of ransomware encrypting any data it has access to and requesting a ransom for the decryption key to restore data has evolved. It is now a more insidious and far-reaching problem involving bad actors exfiltrating data and requesting a ransom to keep from exposing that data publicly.

The demand for cloud security continues to increase in the face of supply chain attacks affecting the security of hundreds of thousands of organizations on platforms like GitHub. These concerning developments are among the reasons why we’re building Nightfall and are top of mind as we pursue our vision of enabling data security everywhere in the cloud. 2022 has been a busy and exciting year for us here at Nightfall as we’ve built out the platform in response to these developments.

The ISO 27001 is one of the most recognized security standards for private sector organizations across the globe and is often required by prospective enterprise customers, helping organizations unlock new business opportunities. ISO 27001 was recently updated along with its companion guidance standard ISO 27002. The updated title for this standard is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Information Security, Cybersecurity, and Privacy Protection.

2022 has been a busy year in cybersecurity with some high-profile breaches taking over the headlines late in the year. From simple negligence to unpatched systems, phishing emails, hackers, and malicious insiders our systems and data remain vulnerable. It’s clear that despite our best investments in security training and technology there is still room for improvement in 2023.