In 2024, every business should be aware of these 10 cybersecurity threats

Cybersecurity threats pose a significant risk to safeguarding confidential information, the smooth operation of essential services, and the integrity of critical infrastructure. The spectrum of these threats is broad, and effectively guarding against them is a difficult challenge. Threats are constantly evolving, with new issues emerging daily. 

This explains why cybersecurity is a top priority for organizations. As our latest research on Digital Transformation and Product Development reveals, 59% of organizations surveyed will be investing to improve their cybersecurity posture this year, with 44% citing strengthening data security as the primary business objective.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to these diverse and intricate problems; effective improvement in your security posture is contingent on understanding and addressing the specific threats you encounter. To mitigate these threats, consider adopting the following foundational strategies:

• Educate yourself and your team about the nature of cybersecurity threats and the best practices to counter them.
• Implement policies and practices to create a structured defense framework.
• Incorporate comprehensive security controls and enhanced protective measures based on best practices and maturity-based frameworks.
• Conduct regular tests and monitoring of your systems to identify and remediate vulnerabilities in a timely manner.

The following sections will explore the top 10 cybersecurity threats that demand your attention and the strategies to mitigate them.

1. Insecure software development practices

Insecure software development arises from prioritizing quick-release cycles over incorporating essential security measures. This gap often leads to vulnerabilities that expose software to cyber attacks, resulting in data breaches and other security incidents. These incidents can lead to significant financial losses and can damage an affected organization’s reputation.

Addressing insecure software development requires the integration of DevSecOps practices into the software development lifecycle. DevSecOps is a methodology that blends security with development and operations, ensuring that security is a foundational component throughout the software development process. In practice, this can mean:

• CI/CD pipelines with automated security checks (like secret scanning).
• Automating repetitive security tasks like static and dynamic analysis.
• Adopting formal written development security standards such as the OWASP software assurance maturity model (SAMM).
• Utilizing OWASPS DevSecOps maturity mode (DSOMM) to identify and remediate any non-code related gaps that weren’t already covered by SAMM. 
• Fostering a culture of security consciousness where security and development team collaboration is encouraged and prioritized.

2. Misconfiguration and flaws in production

Misconfiguration and security flaws in production environments are common yet often undetected areas of an attack surface that can cause systems to be vulnerable to cyber-attacks. These issues can stem from many sources, including improper implementation of cloud services, default settings that aren’t secure, and lack of oversight in setting up network security controls. These lapses can lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, and other severe security incidents, significantly impacting an organization’s financial standing and credibility.

To address these vulnerabilities, routine white-box security assessments are critical. White-box assessments examine the internal workings of applications and their environments, and are designed to identify and prioritize the remediation of misconfigurations and security flaws. Key areas should include:

• A security program analysis to determine what controls are needed and how requirements are communicated and enforced.
• A detailed security code review.
• A configuration audit of cloud and CI/CD infrastructure.
• An environmental analysis of access controls across infrastructure.
• An evaluation of security and awareness training provided to technical teams that build and maintain the platform.

3. Vulnerabilities in third-party components

In environments where white-box security assessments are already adopted, the challenge shifts to ensuring these practices effectively address vulnerabilities in third-party components. These external components, which are critical for functionality and efficiency in software development, can introduce hidden vulnerabilities that pose significant security risks. Even with white-box assessments, these third-party vulnerabilities can lead to unauthorized access and data breaches, impacting an organization’s financial health and reputation.

To expand the approach to mitigate third-party component risks, consider the following:

• Tools like GitHub’s Dependabot can automatically identify and update vulnerable dependencies in your codebase. They continuously monitor for known vulnerabilities in third-party libraries and suggest updates or patches as they become available.
• Implementing container registries that enforce security policies and scan for vulnerabilities can help ensure that only secure container images are used.
• Utilize tools like JFrog Artifactory for managing binaries and dependencies, ensuring that only verified and secure third-party components are integrated into your development pipeline.
• Conduct thorough security assessments of third-party vendors to evaluate their security posture. This should consider reviewing their security certifications, audit reports, or conducting independent security assessments.
• Include SBOMs in builds. When a vulnerability is disclosed, an SBOM lets you quickly determine if your software is affected and to what extent, thereby streamlining the patching process.

4. Insufficient security testing

The issue of insufficient security testing is a significant gap in many cybersecurity defenses. It arises when software and systems are not rigorously tested for vulnerabilities that could be exploited by external attacks. This lack of thorough testing can leave an organization susceptible to critical cyber threats.

To counter insufficient security testing, it’s important to prioritize formal vulnerability management processes and technologies, supplemented by black-box penetration testing. But why both?

• Vulnerability management is a proactive approach, focusing on the identification and mitigation of known vulnerabilities through automated scanning and monitoring using a vulnerability scanner; this is an activity that should be applied to all infrastructure.
• Black-box pen testing simulates real-world attack scenarios, testing a system’s ability to withstand unexpected or unknown threats. It provides a practical assessment of how vulnerabilities could be exploited in a real attack to ensure that an environment is completely covered.

5. Misuse and security risks of AI/LLM

The rapid advancement and integration of AI and large language models (LLMs) into various applications present unique security challenges. These technologies, while powerful and transformative, can be misused, leading to risks such as data breaches, unauthorized access, and the manipulation of AI systems. 

Additionally, there are growing LLM safety/alignment concerns about how these technologies could be leveraged by cybercriminals to enhance their attack strategies, making traditional security measures less effective.

Here’s how you can mitigate threats to generative AI systems and machine learning systems:

• Adapt threat modeling activities to ensure architectural and testing coverage of MITRE ATLAS (Adversarial Threat Landscape for Artificial-Intelligence Systems) to better understand potential attack vectors in AI/ML systems and develop strategies to mitigate these risks.
• Ensure security testing includes coverage of known large language model attack vectors as outlined in OWASP top 10 for LLMs which covers:
  • Prompt injection
  • Insecure output handling
  • Poisoning training data
  • Denial of service attacks
  • Supply chain vulnerabilities
  • Sensitive data exposure
  • Bad plugin designs
  • Excessive agency
  • Overreliance
  • Model theft

6. Application-level security threats

Application-level security threats, which cover typical OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities like injection attacks and broken authentication, are critical concerns in software development because they occur so frequently. Just slightly behind phishing and pretexting, the Verizon data breach investigation report identified application-level security threats as one of the most common methods attackers use in data breaches. This is because the exploitation of these vulnerabilities can lead directly to organizational “crown jewels,” significantly impacting an organization’s financial and reputational standing.

The best approach to counter these types of threats is to adopt a holistic approach. This should include integrating security into every phase of the development process, from architecture to language selection, integrating static and dynamic code analysis tooling directly into CI/CD pipelines, manual code reviews, and routine AppSec black-box testing.

7. Cloud infrastructure vulnerabilities

In cloud environments, vulnerabilities often arise from misconfigured services, inadequate access controls, or outdated components. These weaknesses can lead to significant security mishaps, impacting data privacy and operational integrity.

A modern approach combining structured management, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and pipeline methodologies to infrastructure management is ideal for gaining visibility and validating that controls are in place, and as an added benefit, tends to be self-documenting. Further, we recommend:

1. Establishing routine processes for identifying and addressing cloud-specific vulnerabilities through regular assessments and scanning of cloud services in line with vulnerability management and white-box assessments we mentioned earlier.
2. Embrace infrastructure as code (IaC) with integrated security checks that can validate configurations and deployments before any changes are made to production environments. 

8. Unpatched security vulnerabilities 

Unpatched security vulnerabilities are a prevalent issue in many organizations, often due to delays or oversights in applying necessary updates and patches to software and systems. These unaddressed vulnerabilities are often exploited by attackers. The repercussions of such incidents can be significant

The key to mitigating these risks lies in a well-structured security program that emphasizes timely patch management. Keep the following steps in mind:

• Establish a clear policy for regular patching, outlining the process for tracking, testing, and deploying updates. This policy should specify patching frequency, identify downtime windows, and consider the needs of different types of infrastructure, including non-ephemeral systems.
• Ensure vulnerability management processes include metrics around aging (how long you’ve had the vulnerability) to catch systemic failures of patch management.
• Consider architectural adjustments to support Blue/Green deployments, which can facilitate seamless updates with minimal downtime.

9. Insider threats and human error

Everyone makes mistakes, however, insider threats and human error present a significant organizational risk if not properly managed. These risks vary from accidental mishandling of data to intentional actions by employees that compromise security. The impact of such incidents can be profound, often leading to data breaches or weakened system security.

To effectively address these internal security concerns, fostering a culture of security awareness and implementing continuous training are key–this is the DevSecOps way. 

In addition, it’s crucial to develop and deploy security controls that assume people will make mistakes. Those controls might include:

• Implementing guard rail policies via AWS organizational policies.
• Mandating multi-factor authentication be used for all logins.
• Enforcing IaC with a manual gating review process for all infrastructure changes.

10. Compliance risks and regulatory challenges

Compliance and regulatory challenges are increasingly complex, especially in cybersecurity. Organizations face the task of adhering to several regulations, such as SOC2, ISO, GDPR, HIPAA, or SOX, which can vary significantly by region and industry. Non-compliance can lead to negative outcomes from missed sales opportunities to severe, legal complications, and damage to reputation.

Developing and maturing security programs in alignment with compliance requirements is essential for mitigating these risks. Take caution with the following best practices:

• Know your compliance requirements and obligations such as what standards you must adhere to. If you don’t know, hire someone to help you.
• Ensure that your security program is designed and updated to satisfy relevant regulatory standards.
• Identify compliance gaps by conducting regular audits to validate compliance with these standards.
• Make sure user data is well protected in line with GDPR requirements (minimize, encrypt, protect, forget).
• Make sure teams are educated on the compliance requirements for their roles.
• Develop clear documentation and reporting processes to demonstrate compliance. This is particularly essential for data breach notification requirements, which can have severe penalties if mishandled or ignored.

Strengthening data security is the primary objective for organizations according to our recent report Investing in Digital Transformation and Product Development. Download the complete report here for more insights on the digital transformation trends of 2024.