Towards ever-increasing cyber threats in 2023

Trellix’s Advanced Research Center released its annual Threat Forecast 2023 report on Dec. 7, 2022: the text urges organizations to anticipate « future threats » as « the geopolitical environment and the adoption of new technologies will contribute to the emergence of ever more sophisticated threats and new malicious actors. »

According to Trellix, geopolitics will continue to dictate the pace of the global cyber threat. In particular, the report points to the war in Ukraine, if it continues: « Russian threat actors could likely continue to target Ukraine’s public, energy, financial, business and association sectors while using propaganda and disinformation campaigns to wage war, » states analyst Anne An.

Tensions between China and Taiwan could also translate into new cyber attacks against Taipei and its allies (Japan, South Korea, and the United States). These countries are also in the sights of North Korea.

Trellix is also concerned about hacktivism, which, after a record-breaking 2022, could « change scale » again in 2023. And could cause, among other things, large-scale DDoS attacks.

The cybersecurity firm also expects a sharp increase in software vulnerability exploits, especially in supply chains using third-party software. But also increased attacks targeting satellites and space and a further strengthening of phishing attacks, especially « call-back phishing ».

Finally, Trellix believes that the attribution of attacks will become increasingly difficult, especially due to a growing decoupling between the vendors and users of malicious tools.