Cybersecurity: The 5 Key Trends Every Business Needs to Know

10 terabytes of data are stolen every month according to the 2022 ENISA report on the threat landscape in the EU. Improving both your cybersecurity understanding and best practices is one such way to get ahead. In 2020, significant malicious attacks against key sectors doubled in Europe and, according to the European Union's Cybersecurity Agency (ENISA), have stayed that way ever since. Nonetheless, cybersecurity's reputation as nebulous continues to be a barrier to business' appetite for tackling it.

There is more emphasis and need than ever to educate everyone on the way they behave online and improving the way they prepare for cybersecurity threats. For businesses, this is of particular importance. As cyberattacks proliferate, it is essential to, firstly, understand that a simple knowledge of key trends and processes can do a lot to protect your business and, secondly, work to stay ahead of the challenges and mitigate risk. By embracing security programs that proactively research trends, develop new tools, and safeguard against new threats, your business can reach a more cyber-secure way of working.

Why Does Cybersecurity Matter?

Firstly, cybersecurity is key to maintaining a strong business reputation. Stephane Nappo, Global Head of Information Security at Société Générale, commented recently that, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and a few minutes of cyber-incident to ruin it.". As well as sacrificing your reputation, cyberattacks threaten your profits and growth. In fact, an astonishing 83% of small to medium-sized businesses are not financially prepared to recover from a cyberattack. Prevention, then, is better than cure.

Though cybersecurity might be scary to understand, protection is simpler than you might think. There are all kinds of ways your business can keep yours and your customers' data protected, many far less complex than you think. Recognizing and reporting phishing, using stronger passwords, or regularly updating software are key to be more secure online. Implementing robust eSignature features can also significantly enhance your document security.

In fact, 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error. But businesses should see this as an opportunity. It means simple changes to processes, correctly supporting and educating employees, and staying on top of trends, can almost definitely all result in significant cybersecurity improvements. With that in mind, here are 5 key cybersecurity trends that you and your team should be aware of.

5 Key Trends in Cybersecurity

1. Customers want cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is now far more than simply an internal business problem. Today buyers are more conscious about their own data, and its usage, than ever before. Mobile security was recently ranked as the most important solution by 9 out of 10 consumers. However, nearly 70% of consumers do not trust companies with their data. As well as this, for businesses, it can mean communicating cybersecurity credentials externally – and making sure these are valid internally. Understanding the legality of electronic signatures can help businesses build trust with customers concerned about data security.

2. The Rise of Ransomware

Ransomware malware is designed to encrypt files on a system and then demand a 'ransom' in exchange for the decryption key needed to restore those files. Basically, it denies a user access to certain applications until they pay the ransom. This type of cyberattack has become one of the most common and visible cybersecurity threats of recent years, with Forbes predicting it to only get worse in the future. However, because ransomware typically searches for system vulnerabilities to take advantage of, simply ensuring everyone in your company installs the latest security systems and keeps them up to date can help you combat cyberattacks like this.

3. Cybersecurity is entering the boardroom

The proliferation of cyberattacks has had an impact on the relationship between IT security teams and the C-suite. Now, more than half of UK business leaders include cybersecurity attacks in lists of their top three main concerns, whilst a recent Gartner survey found 88% of Boards of Directors across Europe view cybersecurity as a business risk. On these results, Paul Proctor, Gartner's research vice president, commented: "It's time for executives outside of IT to take responsibility for securing the enterprise. (It's) a business issue, and not just another problem for IT to solve." Forward-thinking businesses are already starting to grasp this, and it's predicted that by 2025, at least 50% of C-level executives will have performance requirements related to cybersecurity.

4. Cybersecurity is becoming a more important part of ESG initiatives

Although questions of sustainability might spring to mind when you think of ESG, the 'S' stands for 'Social', including such things as diversity and inclusion, fair pay, social justice, but also workplace safety, consumer safety, and data protection and privacy. Every business has to work hard on improving their ESG credentials and cybersecurity has to be considered too. By 2026, it's expected that 30% of large organisations will have publicly shared ESG goals focused on cybersecurity – up from just 2% last year.

5. Remote working can cause cybersecurity problems

In their recent Digital Defence Report, Microsoft wrote: "While most industries made the shift to remote work due to the pandemic, it created new attack surfaces for cybercriminals to take advantage of, such as home devices being used for business purposes." Essentially, remote working created new cyber vulnerabilities; ones that many employees were unaware of. To combat this, businesses can look to do more comprehensive employee training on these issues, but also implement new processes to make staying secure remotely easier. For example, implementing eSignature with multi-channel delivery not only accelerates the time to completion, but works using world-class security software: to keep every document, and your data, safe from cyberattacks.

In Conclusion

With a better knowledge of cybersecurity, or at least its main issues, every business will work both more safely and efficiently.

In Europe, Docusign is mostly known for its eSignature solution: the world's #1 way to send and sign from anywhere, at any time. However, our broader agreement cloud offers important add-ons that can add a critical layer of cybersecurity to businesses of every type and size. Our Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution has the most stringent security, privacy, and data residency requirements. In a digital-first world, these security layers are crucial.

Other resources:

• Cybersecurity: why worry about your company's data?

• Cybersecurity and E-signature: What You Need to Know