CyberArk has analyzed the IT security trends of the past year, such as passwordless authentication, classic phishing methods and new AI-supported attack methods, and predicts the effects for this year based on this analysis. These are based on the results of CyberArk research as well as empirical values from collaboration with customers and partners. CyberArk sees three important developments.

Session hijacking plays an important role in attacks

More and more companies will switch to passwordless access management or at least from password-only to MFA (multi-factor authentication) to thwart attacks. At the same time, cyberattackers will continue to develop their tactics to steal session cookies and bypass strong authentication mechanisms. CyberArk therefore assumes that session hijacking will account for around 40 percent of all cyber attacks in 2024. It is therefore crucial for companies to continuously secure, monitor and respond to the misuse of user sessions and cookies.

Credential theft will continue

Traditional credential theft will become less common if the passwordless method catches on and is used correctly. However, credential theft attacks - cyberattacks that target sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card information - will not decrease: Companies that introduce passwordless authentication often need a back-up option - and they often fall back on insecure options, i.e. passwords. In addition, not all systems will be able to be converted to passwordless methods. Attackers will therefore continue to exploit this route and, as a result, around 30 percent of companies will see an increase in security incidents related to credential theft.

Technical consolidation must be well considered

As CyberArk suspects, the majority of companies will push ahead with technical consolidation in order to simplify security processes. As IT and security environments are often large, heterogeneous and complex, they are difficult to manage and teams are not always familiar with all the tools. As each platform focuses on certain aspects while overlapping with others, it is difficult to identify and understand all potential vulnerabilities and threats in their cloud-centric environments. Unmet SLAs, escalating costs and dangerous security vulnerabilities will cause about 55 percent of organizations to accelerate technical consolidation, according to CyberArk. They will seek to simplify operations and make the best use of existing resources by working with fewer vendors and using fewer disparate systems.

"The current and future threat landscape in IT - just think of AI-based cyberattacks - makes it imperative for organizations to continuously refine security procedures, make strategic investments and proactively prepare for new attack patterns," explains Michael Kleist, Area Vice President DACH at CyberArk. "In our view, there is no way around establishing a comprehensive and fully integrated identity security and zero trust strategy. This is the only way to achieve reliable threat prevention and defense."