When we look back at this past year’s cybersecurity stories a decade from now, what will we remember most? That is the question that I attempt to answer every December in this annual cyber review.

As I traveled all across North America and the world, unrelenting questions surrounding AI and GenAI came up at security and technology conferences, no matter what the initial topic was. For example, 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.

WHY UNPRECEDENTED?

Readers are probably not surprised by this headline about GenAI stealing the 2023 cyber show, but some may be wondering how the tech is unprecedented in “disrupting plans and ushering in unparalleled change.”

Put simply, I have never seen a new topic come out of nowhere to dominate the industry. Some are comparing these changes to the beginning of the Internet.

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 (from December 2022)

• More cyber insurance issues and assorted (big) changes coming. Many won’t qualify.
• More nation-state cyber attacks based on lessons learned from the Ukraine war.
• Growing trouble with multifactor authentication (MFA) attacks.
• New attacks against space vehicles and drones.
• 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.
• Hacktivism grows into new areas and becomes a bigger problem.
• Enterprises veering away from endpoint solutions and moving toward platforms to reduce complexity.
• Ransomware will be back in new, more dangerous, blended forms.
• More attacks against nontraditional technology, from cars to toys to smart cities.

Back in November, we covered some staggering numbers regarding how popular GenAI apps have become. You can see the full list at the link, but here are the top give:

1. ChatGPT: Launched in November 2022, it quickly dominated with 14.6 billion visits over 10 months, averaging 1.5 billion monthly.

2. Character.AI: Introduced in September 2022, it captivated users, accumulating 3.8 billion visits and surging by 463.4 million within a year.

3. Google Bard: Google’s March 2023 entry saw a remarkable 241.6 million visits in just six months.

4. Janitor AI: A unique chatbot from May 2023, it experienced a quick rise with 192.4 million visits in four months.

5. Perplexity AI: Established by ex-Google staff in August 2022, it progressed rapidly, drawing 134.3 million users in nine months.

Here’s another set of perspectives on cybersecurity in 2023 from top industry leaders. (Note they also start with AI.)

OTHER TOP CYBER STORIES FROM 2023

Two more examples:

The HIPAA Journal: IBM: Average Cost of a Healthcare Data Breach Increases to Almost $11 Million “The 2023 IBM Security Cost of a Data Breach Report shows the average data breach cost has increased to $4.45 million ($165 per record), with data breaches in the United States being the costliest at an average of $9.48 million, up 0.4 percent from last year. Data breaches are the costliest that they have ever been and have increased by 15 percent since 2020. 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. All data breaches studied for the report occurred between March 2022 and March 2023.”

Verizon.com: 2023 Data Breach Investigations Report: frequency and cost of social engineering attacks skyrocket “The median cost per ransomware more than doubled over the past two years to $26,000, with 95 percent of incidents that experienced a loss costing between $1 and $2.25 million. 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 (24 percent), ransomware remains one of the top cyber attack methods. ‘The human element still makes up the overwhelming majority of incidents, and is a factor in 74 percent of total breaches, even as enterprises continue to safeguard critical infrastructure and increase training on cybersecurity protocols. …’”

Here’s an excerpt: “A wave of ransomware attacks targeting critical infrastructure in recent weeks is a stark reminder that the ransomware problem will continue to get worse before it slows down — despite the U.S. government’s best efforts. Why it matters: In the meantime, hackers will keep disrupting critical services at schools, hospitals, financial service institutions and more. Driving the news: Several critical infrastructure organizations are responding to ransomware this week.

• Some hospitals across the U.S. had to divert ambulances from their emergency rooms and cancel elective procedures throughout the week due to a ransomware attack.
• The North Texas Municipal Water District is investigating a suspected ransomware attack this week.
• Ransomware hit Fidelity National Financial, a real estate services company, last week — making it impossible for some customers to pay their mortgages for several days.
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned right before Thanksgiving that ransomware hackers are still exploiting a vulnerability in a popular Citrix product — months after a patch became available.”

FINAL THOUGHTS