WatchGuard Cybersecurity Predictions 2021

 In Blog, Cybersecurity, Watchguard

2020 was an incredible year for advancements in cybersecurity threats, protections, and changes in trends. But the year also seemed determined to make an impact on history through its sequence of rolling disasters. In many regards, life and business may never be the same as they were “pre-pandemic.” For better or worse much of what 2020 delivered is likely here to stay — at least at some level. On the technology and cybersecurity front, the most significant 2020 highlights we witnessed include:

With 2020 nearly behind us, WatchGuard took a moment to prognosticate what changes we’ll see to the threat landscape in 2021. You can read all of WatchGuard’s predictions but we’ve highlighted a few of the more threatening forecasts below.

Automation Drives Tidal Wave of Spear Phishing Campaigns

Automation will allow hackers to launch spear-phishing campaigns at record volumes. The new automation techniques will streamline the attacks allowing more efficient data collection on users across social media and corporate websites. The result will be an incredible surge in spear-phishing attacks that are highly believable and highly successful. Train your users on how to spot phishing emails and build awareness as a key component to your defense.

Attackers Swarm VPNs and RDPs as the Remote Workforce Swells

WatchGuard predicts attacks against VPNs and RDPs will double in 2021 as a result of the continued shift towards work-from-home. These attacks will lead to an increase in corporate network breaches through the often less secure home networks. Now is the time to secure your employees’ home Wi-Fi and your corporate VPNs.

Attackers Pinpoint Security Gaps in Legacy Endpoints

Legacy systems such as Windows 7 will continue to see a rise in attacks as they remain unsupported by Microsoft but still in widespread use within organizations.

Every Service Without MFA Will Suffer a Breach

With billions of usernames and passwords widely available on the dark web, credentials will remain easy for attackers to guess and WatchGuard predicts every service without multi-factor authentication will suffer a breach in 2021. Strong authentication is the cornerstone to good security. We already know that strong passwords are not enough to protect your data and systems. Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) remains the only true security measure available to fight against authentication attacks.

 

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