The sheer amount of data that is created in our increasingly digital world is astounding. By 2025 the global datasphere will span 175 zettabytes, about 3.5 times its current size, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). Emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G, paired with the rapidly growing number of connected devices, will propel this growth.

All of this technological progress translates to expanded opportunities for innovation and digital access. It also means an expanded attack surface for bad actors to capitalize on.

Cybercriminals Have Not Slowed Down

When COVID-19 forced employees to work from home in early 2020, many people accessed sensitive company materials from personal devices. This created an opportunity for hackers and cybercriminals, opening an entire world of new attack vectors.

As organizations recover from the rapid transition to telework, they must also retroactively create remote operations with a cybersecurity-centric approach. To achieve cyber resiliency, you need to know your environment and prioritize the most critical things to protect. From there, you can optimize your security around those priorities.

The Industries Being Targeted

In the wake of global health and economic crises, health and financial industries in the private and federal sectors, as well as the U.S. military, are targets for cyber attacks. Using healthcare as an example, we see that as the medical device ecosystem becomes more interconnected, it's increasingly fragile and vulnerable to cyber attacks. However, it will take the entire health community, including medical product manufacturers, hospitals, and policymakers to work together to prioritize cyber resiliency.

Impacts Caused by the Pandemic

With the shift to remote working, what are the impacts caused by COVID-19 on the cybersecurity threat landscape? Explore more on:

• Steps to retroactively outfit remote operations
• Industries particularly susceptible to attack in the coming year
• The security of the cloud, as more businesses migrate to cloud-based operations
• Widespread adoption of emerging technologies: positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT); industrial IoT; artificial intelligence (AI); and 5G

Read the POLITICO interview for advanced cyber threat insights, and how to reduce your attack surface and increase cyber resilience.