The Top Cybersecurity Trends of 2022

1. The Top Cybersecurity Trends of 2022 What were the top tech and e-security trends of 2022? What can be said about 2022 that hasn’t already been said? You’ve likely already been inundated with perfunctory retrospectives on the ‘year that was’—the Ukraine War, Elon Musk, inflation, midterms, Kanye West, ‘the slap’, Messi, et al. But I would like to think that 2022 represented a year of profound transition and one that set us up so we can reasonably hope for greater peace and economic stability in 2023 and beyond. Recall our optimism from early 2021 when we stated that we were on the verge of a brave new decade: the “Soaring 20s.” We atTech Essentials still believe that may come to pass (albeit a bit delayed) and that events in 2022 may well pave the way toward better times. My personal predictions for 2023: a cease-fire in Ukraine, slow but gradual reductions in inflation combined with (hopefully) fewer Fed rate increases, a stock market rebound, a US Women’s World Cup championship, and, of course, many new and exciting features and products from RPost! And with that sanguine outlook, I’d like to turn back to some of our most popularTech Essentials articles from the past year. Back in January, many of us were still working from home indefinitely, and our article on Mastering the Art of Remote Communications and its tie in to the Star Wars universe got some very positive attention. At the time, “Zoom fatigue” was running rampant, so any tips and tricks that could help us more easily get to the finish line with remote work arrangements were appreciated. Our ongoing series on Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks received praise across industries, and our single piece about How to Prevent BEC Attacks published at the outset of the 2022 baseball season highlighted the dangers of “nice guys finishing last.” Unfortunately, you can be too nice when confronted with imposter emails asking for a favor or request.

2. 2022 was a year that saw (terrifying) improvements in deepfake technology—where scammers leverage machine learning and AI to manipulate audio/visual content in real time to trick unwitting victims into forking over bank account numbers and sensitive password data. Deepfakes are even being used to interview for and get remote jobs, and our piece on Your Newest (Fake) Remote Employee May Already Be Wreaking Havoc raised some necessary awareness among our customers and friends. Fortunately, we had already launched the RSecurity Human Error Protection Suite to tackle this and other cutting-edge scams. A major theme we covered in the second half of the year was the concept of PRE-Crime. Movie fans may recall that 2022 was the 20th anniversary of the Minority Report where a future police agency is tasked with identifying people who will commit crimes before they are actually committed. In a similar vein, we discussed How to Prevent Cybercrimes Before They Potentially Happenby leveraging RMail’s PRE-Crime suite. These features thwart BEC attacks that lure people into sending an invoice, investments, escrow, or procurement payments inadvertently into cybercriminal bank accounts. Finally, we heard that our listicle, Top 5 Insurance Tech Issues & Insights from AppliedNet at Optimize!22, was very well-received by our insurance customers and partners. In this piece, we discussed how elegantly easy email encryption means bliss for intended recipients in addition to advice on how to implement an eSignature solution without all the rationing. We hope you (re)enjoy these popular articles from 2022. Happy New Year! As always, feel free to contact us to discuss how RMail, RSign, RDocs, and RForms should be in your tech toolbox for 2023.