Digital Dependencies Can Lead to Increasing Cyber Threats

Technology and digital dependencies are being increasingly used by governments, non-profits, and enterprise businesses to manage everything from public services to business processes to everyday activities. A more complex cyber threat landscape and an increasing number of critical failure points are simultaneously being produced by convergent technology platforms, tools, and interfaces connected through the internet, which is quickly transitioning to a more decentralized version 3.0. As society continues to move toward digital dependencies, cybercrime poses a serious threat and regularly costs businesses hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Digital Dependencies Can Lead To Cyber Threats

Costs go beyond just money; critical infrastructure, societal harmony, and mental health are at risk. Over the past 20 years, increasing digital dependencies on systems have fundamentally changed how many societies operate. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a shift to remote work. It accelerated the adoption of platforms and devices allowing sensitive data to be shared with third parties, including cloud service providers, data aggregators, application programming interfaces (APIs), and other technology-related intermediaries. Even though these systems are effective for processing data, they introduce additional layers of reliance on service providers.

Digital dependencies on exchanges related to remote work have also been relocated from office to residential networks, which have a wider range of connected devices and less security against cyber infiltration. Additionally, there’s an increasing demand for capabilities based on the integration of numerous technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) enabled devices, edge computing, blockchain, and 5G. These capabilities offer enormous opportunities for companies and societies to use and employ technology in ways that can significantly increase efficiency, quality, and production; however, they can also expose users to higher and more harmful types of digital and cyber risks.

As society embraces the next iteration of the internet built on blockchain technology, the interconnection and convergence of digital tools will continue to grow. The metaverse—a network of 3D virtual environments made possible by emerging technologies, including cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs)—will be one manifestation of this movement. It will offer unprecedented socio-economic interoperability and immersive virtual reality experiences. The growing dependence on and fragmentation of these kinds of complicated technologies, which are often characterized by decentralized, a lack of structured safeguards, or sophisticated onboarding infrastructure, will require users to navigate security vulnerabilities.

As society and companies are shifting to the digital dependencies, including remote working and depending on technologies to manage their networks, threat operators will attempt to expose potential gaps in data networks. Leaders must continue to pay attention to enduring issues like cybercrime and ransomware attacks. Strengthening cyber resilience within companies needs to involve educating leaders about cybersecurity issues and bringing new cyber threats to board-level discussions.

Additionally, it’s important for companies to always remain vigilant on the latest threat landscape and utilize a robust cybersecurity company that provides a comprehensive solution. At SpearTip, our certified engineers are continuously working 24/7/365 in an investigative cycle monitoring companies’ networks and ready to respond to incidents at a moment’s notice. Our remediation experts focus on restoring companies’ operations, reclaiming their networks by isolating cyber threats, and recovering the business-critical assets needed to operate. The ShadowSpear Platform, our cutting-edge managed detection and response technology, provides cloud-based solutions collecting endpoints and detecting sophisticated unknown and advanced cyber threats using comprehensive insights.

If your company is experiencing a breach, call our Security Operations Centers at 833.997.7327 to speak directly with an engineer.