As 2022 comes to a close, tech pundits blow the dust off their crystal balls and share their predictions for the coming year. For my own annual Top Ten lists I’ve been repurposing other, smarter folks’ insights since 2012—and since you all seem to find these roundups useful, let’s do it again! Here’s my curated Top 10 predictions for 2023…
2023 IT Security Predictions From Professionals Who Live It Every Day – Let’s kick off this year’s predictions with some InfoSec insight from Security Boulevard. Like they do every year, attacks will continue to evolve because infrastructures are becoming more complex. Firewalls and antivirus solutions are so 2015; today you need a suite of solutions to combat bots, phishing, DDoS, zero days, new vulnerabilities, etc. We’ve learned to ignore texts and emails from the CFO asking us to wire money to them, but what about a real-time AI impersonation of the CFO on a phone or video call? We might also start to see facial recognition and voiceprints from a deep fake being good enough to pass a biometric challenge. “That is not me!” the computer claims, with the real person standing next to it.
The Top 5 Cloud Computing Trends In 2023 – Five is half of ten, right? Forbes notes that the mass adoption of cloud computing has fueled many of the recent hot tech trends like AI, IoT, and remote work. It’ll also boost VR/AR, cloud gaming, quantum computing, and even the metaverse. With all that, security and availability will be paramount. More data in the cloud will attract criminals looking to expose that data, and the attention of regulators looking to protect our data. Thus, even with the predicted recession, we’ll see increased investment for cloud security and resilience. Hybrid-cloud architectures will become old news as multi-cloud becomes the norm. In 2020, 70% of companies said they were still tied to one cloud service provider but 84% of mid-to-large companies will have adopted a multi-cloud strategy by 2023.
CCS Insight’s Predictions for 2023 and Beyond Revealed – There are changes ahead for the digital world, the digital society, and the digital self. CCS focused on areas such as sustainability, personal futures, advances in infrastructure, regulation, the changing workplace, connected devices, and virtual worlds. Their predictions included a foldable iPad, wireless body monitoring for healthcare, and a new green certification for websites that use low-energy design and code! Augmented reality will become a central part of unboxing experiences with virtual step-by-step instructions rather than paper, and the use of biometric logins will help streaming services clamp down on password sharing.
Cybersecurity Predictions for a Turbulent 2023 – With ransomware continuing to wreak havoc, critical infrastructure in the sights of adversaries, and the threat to the digital supply chain escalating, CISOs have had a rough 2022. Proofpoint notes that the commercialization of hacking tools on the dark web will increase cybercrime with offers of ransomware-as-a service. We’ll see more MFA bypass attacks with new tools like phishing kits to steal tokens. There is also MFA fatigue among users so attackers bombarding employees with approval requests might make them relent and approve a login attempt that they shouldn’t. We’ll see more double-extortion schemes involving the target organization in addition to any entities that the data leak may impact. Watch out for the double-dip!
Top cybersecurity threats for 2023 – The headline reads: Next year, cybercriminals will be as busy as ever. Are IT departments ready? So, are you ready? Cybersecurity is still at the top of the list for CIOs with “Cloud Vulnerability” and “Datacenter Vulnerability” topping their concerns, maybe because over 6 billion phishing attacks hit devices in 2022. Ransomware was up 33% in 2022 versus 2021, and many companies paid the ransom only to be locked out again. There’s some good news: the median dwell time for intrusions dropped to 28 days from 73 days in 2020. The key is to detect early and get them out. New technology can introduce new risks but behavior-based authentication and multi-layer security can help protect sensitive systems.
32 Predictions for Social Media Marketing in 2023 – With social media a key part of any corporate strategy, socialmediatoday.com focused on the major social players and dug into specific areas for each. For instance, with video consumption up, LinkedIn is expected to add some new video tools along with a focus on audio events. Like Instagram and TikTok, Pinterest is testing the waters on live-stream shopping along with improving its AR capture and display options. Heck, I’m going through a kitchen restore right now due to a slab leak, and the contractor scanned our place then showed us what our new kitchen could look like. “Nah, let’s put the stove over there,” my wife says gleefully—and swipe, there it is!
Predictions for 2023 | Future timeline – Quantumrun has 422 predictions for 2023, including disruptions throughout our culture, technology, science, health, and business sectors. They got 25 fast forecasts in bullet form, and you can dig into further research if you like. Some highlights include: 10% of reading glasses will be connected to the internet, 80% of people on Earth will have a digital presence online, and 90% of the global population will have a supercomputer in their pocket. (I got two out of three covered there.) With that, global mobile web traffic grows to 66 exabytes and global internet traffic overall hits 302 exabytes. If you weren’t sure, 1 exabyte equals 1000000 terabytes. That’s a lot of data.
Ten Things Will Change Cybersecurity in 2023 – With the digital world and the attack surface changing every day, we too must adjust to the changing landscape. Artificial intelligence is starting to take a bigger role in business processes, creating real-time solutions faster than any human could. Also, AI can perform various security-related tasks including data analysis and machine learning. But guess what? Attackers are also using AI-assisted automated solutions to infiltrate our systems, so watch out. The use of artificial intelligence and deepfake technology could help cybercrime significantly. They also get into vulnerable automotive software and how 5G could help attackers by providing faster speeds and a larger attack surface.
41 Big Ideas that will change our world in 2023 – This one comes from LinkedIn with many contributors. Even with remote job listings dipping and some CEOs wanting folks back in the office, hybrid work is here to stay. It allows for flexibility along with that occasional in-office visit for socializing and mentoring. And, since more people are working remotely, the large, sprawling office could see a decline. Technology will help with the healthcare shortage; we’ll be making our clothing out of algae, pineapple skins and mushrooms, among other novel ingredients; and we’ll soon see the next wave of game-changing startups. I only touched a few of the 41, so give this one a look.
Nostradamus Predictions for 2023 – What would our Top 10, Top 10 be without the incomparable Nostradamus who has mystified researchers for over 400 years? This French apothecary claims there will be wars and peace agreements amongst countries at odds, which seems to happen every year. There might be an invincible human-hybrid-monkey-soldier coming along to wreak havoc. That doesn’t sound fun, but we can look forward to a giant, blue whale-sized meteorite carrying aliens to reach earth sometime in 2023. That could be in Europe since he also says there will be depopulation in those regions. Keep watching the skies!
…And that’s it for this year! If we haven’t all been killed by a whale-sized meteorite next December, I foresee that I’ll be doing another Top 10 Top 10. In the meantime, you can also explore Blind mystic Baba Vanga's predictions for 2023 including aliens on Earth and nuclear explosion as a bonus. I wish you a fun, healthy, and enjoyable 2023!
Interested to see if any of the previous year’s prognoses came true?