Five predictions that will shape cybersecurity and the hybrid working landscape in 2023

While the headlines will focus on the effects of 2022’s major incidents, businesses are facing an even greater risk as IT service outages increase. According to Uptime Institute, 80% of organisations have experienced service disruption over the past three years, putting core applications and business-critical data at risk.

Underpinning this heightened risk is the reliance of businesses on the cloud; the shift to hybrid working means more companies’ data is in the hands of external providers and companies remain under attack from cyber criminals, with ransom payments no longer guaranteeing recovery. In 2023, organisations need to unify and strengthen their business resilience to cope with the changing landscape. Here are the top predictions for the upcoming year:

Demand for immediate recovery solutions in the face of service outages

Disruption to services is becoming an inevitability rather than a possibility. Businesses are becoming acutely aware that without immediate recovery, critical data is at risk and productivity impeded. Improving resiliency in the face of frequent outages will be of utmost importance. As such, leaders will look towards unified solutions in 2023 that enable fast file recovery after an incident - allowing them to quickly ‘dial-back’ to moments before disruption to protect and provide access to data and ensure business continuity.

Taking the fight to sophisticated cyber attackers

Service disruption is not the only certainty for organisations in 2023, as the threat of ransomware is constant. While today’s companies are not intimidated or surprised by attacks, their last line of defence (paying the ransom) no longer guarantees recovery. Colonial Pipeline, a large oil pipeline in the US, failed to regain control despite paying a $4.4 million ransom in 2022, a tactic we will likely see replicated in 2023. Businesses must shift from a recovery mindset to a protection and detection mindset, utilising cloud native technologies to mitigate attacks and ensure fast action if defences are breached.

Hybrid working becomes the ‘norm’

The question of whether remote and hybrid working will remain after the pandemic is no longer; this is our new working landscape. The shift to such methodologies has put greater pressure on technology stacks and legacy file access systems, risking business security and productivity. Therefore, the transition to the cloud will continue to accelerate as businesses implement modern cloud file storage to promote smarter and more secure collaboration across locations.

Digital transformation to drive the volatile energy sector

Energy is a volatile industry at the best of times but with rising costs and demands, and significant disruption due to international relations and climate emergencies, the market has never been as unstable as today. Simultaneous with this uncertainty is the industry's rapid digital transformation which is generating massive amounts of data. Storing such data often comes at a great cost, something the sector cannot dissolve in today’s climate. To combat this, organisations are turning to the cloud and migrating from Capex expenses to far more manageable OPEX ones.

The era of machine-generated data

Data has been described as the ‘new oil’ many times, and I’m a firm believer that we’ve only touched the surface of its capabilities. Organisations are using data analytics to drive decision-making and improve services, but another era of machine-generated data is on the horizon. For example, CT scans are a known medical device, however, the manufacturing industry is becoming CT scan’s biggest user. Scanning manufactured units is shortening the time of defect location. Instead of sending a device cross-country for repair, data is shared via the cloud with engineers and technicians to troubleshoot the problem in some other location in the world. In 2023, we're going to see an acceleration of the adoption of scanners and CT equipment and these new use cases will add to the growing data footprint, reaffirming the importance for businesses to implement effective and secure modern file data storage systems.