2022 to see large scale data breaches, malware on mobile phone to grow

Data breaches and cyber attacks are expected to grow to large scale with the adoption of digitisation by both businesses as well as consumers, Israel-based cyber security firm Check Point said on Tuesday.

The company expects cyber groups will continue to leverage fake news campaigns to execute various phishing attacks and scams.

"Going into 2022 we will see an increase in data breaches that will be on a larger scale. These breaches will also have the potential to cost organizations and governments more to recover. In May 2021, the US insurance giant paid USD 40 million in ransom to hackers. This was a record, and we can expect ransom demanded by attackers to increase in 2022," Check Point said in its prediction report.

India is one the top 10 countries that faces most of the cyber attacks.

According to industry estimates, cyber crimes caused a loss of around USD 6 trillion to the global economy in 2020.

"We can expect ransom demand by attackers to increase in 2022. Going into 2022 we will see an increase in data breaches that will be larger scale. These breaches will also have the potential to cost organizations and governments more to recover," the report said.

It said that mobile malware attacks are expected to increase with increase in use of mobile wallets and mobile payment platforms.

"The sophistication and scale of cyber-attacks will continue to break records and we can expect a huge increase in the number of ransomware and mobile attacks," Maya Horowitz, VP Research, Check Point Software.