The cybersecurity landscape changes from month to month — and sometimes from day to day. As cybercriminals develop new tools and techniques for attacking organizations and individuals, it is imperative that everyone understand what they can do to keep their data and devices safe as they navigate the web.

Though experts can’t predict the cybersecurity events that will define the upcoming year, they do have a good idea about the trends that will dominate the cybersecurity landscape. Here are a few issues that will affect cybersecurity going forward.

Social Engineering Will Continue to Be Devastating

As digital security tools get better and better at recognizing threats, cybercriminals are increasingly focusing their efforts on the weakest link in cybersecurity: users. People tend to be much more fallible than top security software, and clever cyberattackers can radically reduce their workload by tricking users into disclosing important security-related information, like their passwords, or else disabling their security tools.

Also called “human hacking,” social engineering will continue to be a vulnerability in cybersecurity because human behavior cannot be addressed with compliance laws. People will continue to be duped by scams over email, social media and other online spaces, so criminals will continue to perpetrate social engineering campaigns in 2022 and beyond.

Supply-chain Ransomware Is the Next Wave

More and more organizations are succumbing to ransomware attacks, to the point that many business leaders think about data breaches not as a matter of “if” but “when.” The supply chain is a particularly vulnerable place within an organization because the supply chain often interacts with other business networks, which could be less secure. As a result, ransomware attacks on the supply chain tend to be more successful, and they can hinder a company’s ability to deliver the products demanded by consumers.

Organizations have been focused on fighting ransomware for more than a decade, but in 2022, cybersecurity experts will begin to address the real issue: the entry point. By providing the supply chain with more protection, organizations can gain ground in the war against ransomware, expending fewer resources to stay safer.

The Government Will Finally Start to Influence Cybersecurity

It isn’t just individuals and organizations that have been plagued by cybercrime; government agencies, too, have increasingly come under fire from cybercriminals. From the WannaCry ransomware in 2017 that brought down Germany’s trains and the U.K.’s National Health Services to the 2020 disinformation attacks influencing the U.S. presidential election, cybercriminals are becoming more aggressive toward government networks.

Fortunately, this will likely result in increased government resources in the cybercrime war. Already, the U.S. is working toward identifying high-priority infrastructure and allocating resources to organizations that require federal support in building cybersecurity. For example, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack targeted the Colonial Pipeline company, but the effects were so wide-ranging that federal and state governments were required to provide assistance. With government aid, critical organizations could bolster their digital defenses to keep everyone safer.

Additionally, governments in 2022 will likely amp up their efforts to find and destroy cybercrime rings. Many cybercriminals don’t operate alone; they work as a group to develop the virtual tools for attacking large populations and major organizations. With cooperation from national governments, the world could be able to shut down some of the largest cybercrime groups.

SMBs Will Succumb to RaaS

Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) is one of the more destructive developments in the world of cybersecurity. Today, cybercriminals don’t necessarily need to bother building their own malware; they can purchase RaaS through cybercrime networks for faster, more efficient attacks. Ransomware developers, too, improve their profits, as they can continue to benefit from ongoing sales of their malware.

In 2022, it is likely that small and medium-sized businesses will bear the brunt of RaaS attacks. Unfortunately, this is primarily due to the increasing disparity in cybersecurity between large, wealthy corporations and smaller, newer companies. Cybercriminal groups tend to be developing ransomware advanced enough to attack larger organizations, which makes infiltrating smaller organizations incredibly easy for attackers using RaaS. Thus, SMBs need to consider devoting more resources to their cybersecurity strategy through the New Year.

Likely, 2022 will bring more than a few major attacks and data breaches. However, if individuals and organizations prepare properly for these cybersecurity trends, the world could become a safer space for digital devices and data.