5 Ways Cybersecurity May Change in 2022

The software industry saw quite a few events regarding cybersecurity this year. Cyberattacks increased, the industry saw a worsening software developer shortage, and a few languages rose to prominence while others fell. Keeping this year’s events as the basis, Susan St. Clair, director of product management, WhiteSource, predicts how cybersecurity may change in 2022. 

In 2021, cyberattacks on the supply chain increased by 650%. Attackers focused heavily on software supply chains, but luckily governments and big companies started to fight back. President Biden signed an executive order that sought to force government contractors to pay closer attention to the software supply chain code in their platforms. Companies like Google, Amazon, and Meta pledged some $10 million to help regulate the open-source supply chain. 

This year also saw a worsening software developer shortage, with many companies struggling to find the right talent to help them keep their products secure. The code developers used also changed as Python and C-based languages rose to increased prominence. 

So much has changed this year, and more change is coming in 2022. Here is what you can expect to see: 

1. Cybercriminals Will Hold a Short Lead in the Race To Secure the Software Supply Chain

In the short term, cybercriminals will continue to have the advantage, but the U.S. government and the tech industry will move closer to catching up. It’s not an exciting exclamation, but it’s true. 

We will see increased funding for federal cybersecurity initiatives in 2022 with support from major players such as Google, Microsoft, and IBM to secure our digital supply chain. These companies will continue to push for less regulation, hoping that their internal efforts will hold off the government. Still, the U.S. Congress will start to codify portions of President Biden’s executive order on software supply chain issues, leading to software bills of materials becoming more standard and software composition analysis becoming more widespread. 

See More: 3 Machine Identity Management Trends to Watch Out for in 2022

2. Smaller Companies Will Make Their Voice Known in Securing the Open Source Supply Chain 

While big companies like Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Dell, and Oracle are leading the charge now, making donations to the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), for instance, smaller companies and even individuals will drive these initiatives forward in the new year. 

Smaller companies and individuals are necessary to help identify and responsibly disclose open-source supply chain attacks within the community as they are found. We will see companies group up to make more contributions to organizations like the OpenSSF and demand larger roles in them. Otherwise, the bigger players may dominate the conversation too much, implementing procedures and policies that are difficult for smaller players to implement. Smaller companies won’t let this happen. 

3. C Programming Languages Will Rise While Few Others Continue To Fall

We will continue to see an increase with C, C#, and C++ because of embedded components and IoT devices. Meanwhile, Python and R will also continue to increase in popularity due to the continuing machine learning and data analysis needs for these codes.

In 2021, Perl, Elm, and Visual Basic fell extensively in use according to both the TIOBE and PYPL indexes. Don’t expect them to make a comeback in 2022. Their time has passed. 

4. Pursuit of ‘Shift Left’ Will Look Toward Supply Chain Management

Being able to detect security issues before installing, committing, building, and/or deploying open-source components that have been compromised is needed in shift-left practices. Don’t be surprised to see this need start to influence capabilities offered in CSPM or container orchestration platforms.

5. Software Companies Offer Additional Training/ Incentives To Attract and Retain Employees

This year, companies faced steep hurdles in attracting and retaining talent. We expect to see companies in 2022 provide more training and learning opportunities to not only teach new skills but also create better career growth and development programs to meet new employee demands. Both developers and security teams need to understand what the other is doing – languages, processes to commit, promotion, and deployment, so no one gets too frustrated and quits.  

We also see companies offering better employee benefits that extend from what they’ve offered during COVID-19, like flexible time-off and work-from-home schedules, internet or phone reimbursements, and better at-home working equipment. Developers will need to be treated respectfully if they’re going to commit to companies. 

See More: 5 Cybersecurity Trends Companies Need To Understand in 2022 and Beyond

What Lies Ahead?  

Nobody can completely predict the future. There are companies out there now that aren’t anticipating cyberattacks in 2022 who may be greatly surprised. The Elm programming language may become the preferred choice for some young and upcoming developers, bringing it back into prominence. The changing economy post-COVID-19 could bring many developers back on the job market. 

No one can fully predict what’s next. If we look to the past, we can come to some strong conclusions about the future. 

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