The answer for calendar year 2023 is not even close.
I was just speaking at the Indiana Public Sector Cybersecurity Summit this past week, and every session I attended had an AI angle - even when the cyber topic was change management, malware, talent or anything else.
To grasp just how unexpected this headline would have been in December 2022, take a look at the top 2023 security industry predictions, which are summarized in the list below from across hundreds of sources and global experts.
GenAI doesn't show up anywhere on the list, and besides machine learning for cyber tool sets, AI received very little attention with the exception of targeted deepfakes growing in use and sophistication.
2023 SECURITY PREDICTION TOP THEMES. More cyber insurance issues and assorted changes coming.
More nation-state cyber attacks based on lessons learned from the Ukraine war.
Growing trouble with multifactor authentication attacks.
Social media attacks surge, including the use of targeted deepfakes.
Use of public cloud computing and digital transformations grows, along with cyber threats.
More critical infrastructure attacks that impact society.
More attacks against nontraditional technology, from cars to toys to smart cities.
AI: Introduced in September 2022, it captivated users, accumulating 3.8 billion visits and surging by 463.4 million within a year.
Google Bard: Google's March 2023 entry saw a remarkable 241.6 million visits in just six months.
Beyond the popularity of GenAI, the fact the bad actors are using it against us and even the number of new cybersecurity tools using AI, there are many shadow IT challenges with free GenAI apps that are dominating conversations around the world as we head into 2024.
Here's another set of perspectives on cybersecurity in 2023 from top industry leaders.
The data for this year's report was collected by the Ponemon Institute and included breach data from 553 organizations in 16 countries with interviews conducted with thousands of individuals.
This rise in cost coincides with a dramatic rise in frequency over the past couple of years when the number of ransomware attacks was greater than the previous five years combined.
That prevalence held steady this year: Representing almost a quarter of all breaches, ransomware remains one of the top cyber attack methods.
Other top stories include ongoing cyber attacks and nation-state battles over the war in Ukraine and the events flowing from the Hamas attacks against Israel.
Last, but certainly not least, we covered another under-the-radar topic last week in a blog entitled 2023's Dark Horse Cyber Story: Critical Infrastructure Attacks.
This Cyber News was published on www.govtech.com. Publication date: Sun, 10 Dec 2023 23:59:04 +0000