E-Business
HP Top Cybersecurity Predictions for the Year
By HP Inc. Security Experts & Advisors
From ransomware pile-ons to increasingly commoditized supply chain TTPs, weaponized firmware exploits and targeted attacks on hybrid workers – the threat landscape is set to evolve at a worrying pace this year.
As 2021 drew to a close, our HP security experts and advisors reflected on what the year 2022 has in store. Here, we include insights from a range of HP security experts – including: Michael Heywood, Supply Chain Security Lead; Joanna Burkey, CISO; Dr. Ian Pratt, Global Head of Security for Personal Systems; Patrick Schläpfer, Malware Analyst; Alex Holland, Senior Malware Analyst; Julia Voo, Global Lead Cybersecurity and Tech Policy; and Michael Howard, Head of Security and Analytics Practice; alongside HP Security Advisory Board member and Partner at Deloitte, Robert Masse – identifying four key trends to look out for.
- Increasing commoditization of software supply chain attacks could result in more high-profile victims targeted
Supply chain attacks are likely to continue to present new opportunities for threat actors in 2022. According to Michael Heywood: “We’ll see supply chain attacks continue to rise in 2022 as threat actors search for weak links in software supply chains, targeting software being used widely and globally, or used by a specific company.”
As Joanna Burkey explains, this approach could create economies of scale for threat actors: “With the Kaseya breach – which impacted over 1,500 companies – we saw that supply chain attacks can be financially rewarding. This could lead to the continued commoditization of the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used to conduct such attacks. This only adds fuel to the fire, giving threat actors more than enough motivation to exploit software supply chains this year.”
Ian Pratt says both SMBs and high-profile victims may be targeted: “Kaseya demonstrated a pathway to monetization for independent software vendor (ISV) breaches. This should be a wakeup call to all ISVs that even if their customer base doesn’t consist of enterprise and government customers, they can still be caught in the crosshairs of attackers looking to exploit their customers. Now that this blueprint is in place, we could see these types of attack become more widespread this year, targeting both SMBs and high-profile names.”
Some verticals are more likely to be targets of supply chain attacks than others, as Robert Masse explains: “Healthcare firms, as well as those in Energy and Resources (E&R), that use lots of different hardware and software from various vendors will be interesting targets for software supply chain attacks. Supply chain integrity will be vital in 2022, as attackers begin launching attacks quicker than organizations can invest in secure software development cycles.”
Organizations should also be aware of the threat posed by vulnerabilities in open-source software, as Patrick Schläpfer explains: “We’ll see an increase in open-source software packages containing malicious code. Attackers will proactively inject new threats into open-source libraries that feed into software supply chains. This could lead to more companies being compromised, regardless of whether they have a secure perimeter or good overall posture.”
- Ransomware gangs could put lives at risk and engage in ‘pile-ons’
Ransomware will continue to be a major risk this year, with victims potentially being hit more than once, as Burkey outlines: “What we’ll see will be akin to ‘social media pile-ons’, with ransomware victims repeatedly targeted by threat actors. Once an organization has been shown to be ‘soft’, others will pile-on to get their share of the action. In some instances, threat actors will hit a company multiple times in double or even triple dip extortion rackets.”
Extortion methods could also extend beyond the victim as ransomware gangs apply the pressure, comments Alex Holland: “Ransomware operators will almost certainly intensify the ways they pressure victims into paying their demands. Beyond data leak websites, attackers are using increasingly varied extortion methods, such as cold calling, and contacting customers and business associates of victim organizations.”
“Heywood highlights that ransomware gangs won’t just encrypt data, they will steal it too, turning the screws on victims: “As we have seen in 2021, threat actors will continue stealing data before encrypting devices, putting pressure on victims to pay ransoms to unencrypt systems, and prevent the release of data.”
Threat actors could also focus on specific verticals and use cases, as highlighted by Masse: “Attackers have noticed that hitting certain industries will produce a higher likelihood of payment. We could see more attacks on healthcare and E&R organizations.
“Threat actors may well target high risk devices, such as critical medical support systems and their supporting infrastructure, where the risk of significant harm will be highest and therefore a payout will come quickly. This has already started to happen in regions such as Canada, with surgeries being delayed due to ransomware attacks.”
The trend of cooperation between threat actors will continue this year too, as Pratt explains: “We’ve seen time and time again that threat actors are willing to cooperate on attacks. There is a vibrant cybercrime marketplace, empowering a criminal supply chain that enables even unsophisticated threat actors to obtain the tools and services needed to launch successful campaigns.
“Vendors may specialize in stealing credentials, creating exploits, writing email lures, or hosting backend services. The bottom line is that the availability of tools and expertise is enabling the sophistication of criminal attacks to rise.”
- Weaponization of firmware attacks will lower the bar for entry
Masse believes a lack of visibility and control over firmware security will exacerbate the issue: “Certain industries where these attacks could be more probable should start thinking about the risks posed by the weaponization of hardware-level malware and exploits.
“They are very difficult to detect even in the best-case scenario. Rogue processes and memory mapping bypasses will be hot topics in 2022, and we can also expect to see threat actors targeting CPUs, the BIOS and microcode as part of a revised kill-chain for ransomware attacks.”
Policy makers should take note of this trend and enforce change, according to Julia Voo: “The weaponization of hardware-level exploits means that policy makers must step in to develop standards that can help to improve firmware security. By working with industry through a bottom-up approach, policy makers can drive meaningful change in an area that has largely been overlooked.”
- Hybrid work and sporting events will create more opportunities to attack users
The distribution of teams within hybrid working models means identity management will continue to play a key role, as Burkey highlights: “Identity must be solid, verified and robust. Organizations need to make sure that every activity coming from an endpoint is authentic. Is it really the user conducting these activities? Are they who they say they are? Too many organizations think being behind a firewall is enough to keep an endpoint safe, but this isn’t true. In the era of hybrid work, identity management will never be more important.”
The shift to hybrid work will also continue to create problems for organizational security, says Michael Howard: “Every single employee remains a target for attackers, with the volume of unmanaged and unsecure devices creating a huge attack surface to defend.” Masse believes this could make it easier for attackers to go after high-profile staff: “Threat actors could start to target the homes and personal networks of top executives, even government officials, as these networks are easier to compromise than traditional enterprise environments.”
Phishing will remain an ever-present threat in the era of hybrid work, Pratt explains: “Employees have been using personal devices for work or corporate devices for personal tasks, like checking emails. This will continue, and it’s likely there will be an increase in phishing attacks targeting both corporate and personal email accounts. This essentially doubles attackers’ chances of launching a successful attack, so organizations need to educate the workforce on the risks of their behavior and enforce technical controls to prevent compromise.”
High-profile sporting events will also present new opportunities for attackers to target users, according to Schläpfer: “The Winter Olympics in Beijing and FIFA World Cup in Qatar give threat actors plenty of scope for exploitation. Such large events attract opportunistic attackers, be it a direct attack on organizers, sponsors, participants and fans, or as phishing lures for malware and ransomware campaigns targeted at users. Organizations and individuals alike need to be aware of the risks.”
A new approach to security is needed
“The rise of hybrid working and continued innovation from threat actors means 2022 has plenty of nasty surprises in store for enterprise security,” comments Ian Pratt. “As a result, we need to go about securing the future of work in an entirely different way. Organizations should embrace a new architectural approach to security that helps to mitigate risk and enable resilience.
“By applying the principles of Zero Trust – least privilege access, isolation, mandatory access control and strong identity management – organizations can drastically reduce the attack surface and secure the future of work.”
HP Wolf Security can help organizations defend against the plethora of new attacks and risks facing them in 2022. By combining hardware-enforced software and security features with industry-leading endpoint security services, HP Wolf Security provides defense-in-depth and enhanced protection, privacy, and threat intelligence, gathering data at the endpoint to help protect the business at large.
Kaspersky’s latest research reveals that the majority of compromised passwords not only violate password-safety guidelines but also remain unchanged for extended periods, which drastically reduces their security.
To provide users with access to more sophisticated and modern ways to log in, Kaspersky’s Password Manager has been enhanced with Passkey technology, enabling users to securely access their accounts while enjoying seamless cross-device synchronisation.
Although passwords still remain one of the major authentication methods, they no longer top the security charts. Often crafted by users themselves, passwords are heavily influenced by human factors, which makes them potentially vulnerable. Kaspersky experts analysed major password leaks from 2023 to 2025 and identified several recurring patterns:
- Users frequently append predictable elements like numbers, dates, and personal identifiers to their passwords. For example, 10% of passwords in datasets analysed contain a number resembling a date (from 1990 to 2025), 0.5% of all leaked passwords end with the number 2024, which is every 200th password!
- The most commonly occurring password combination is ‘12345’, which drastically reduces cryptographic strength and shortens the time required for brute-force attacks to succeed. Among other popular password components are the word ‘love’ and users’ names, as well as countries’ names which are also often included in passwords.
- Moreover, the majority of leaked passwords remain unchanged for years. In 2025, 54% of leaked passwords had already been part of prior data breaches, underscoring widespread reuse of outdated passwords. According to data analysis the average lifetime of the password found in these leaks is 3.5-4 years.
What makes Passkeys more secure?
All these findings highlight the critical vulnerability of password-based authentication when protocols for creation, management, and storage are not rigorously followed. In response to the growing need for robust security, the industry is increasingly shifting its focus toward next-generation solutions like Passkeys, which offer stronger protection against evolving threats.
Passkey technology is based on cryptographic keys and biometrics and is not subjected to threats like phishing or data leaks. A passkey is created for a particular account on a particular platform and is stored directly on the user’s device or in a password manager.
New Passkey feature in Kaspersky Password Manager
When a user registers on a platform that supports Passkey, the device creates a private key and shares a public key with the service. The private key is stored directly on the device, which is good from a security point of view, but complicates authorisation from other devices.
Now Passkeys can be created and stored directly in Kaspersky Password Manager, which allows users to not only sign in to supported services with a single tap, but also access Passkeys on all their devices owing to secure synchronisation.
“From our own experience, we’ve seen how constantly juggling logins and passwords for work, study and even leisure can erode both time and security. Kaspersky Password Manager has long streamlined this process with tools like our secure password generator and auto-fill functionality – ensuring users never sacrifice safety for speed.
In addition to that, we are happy to offer to our customers a new Passkey feature – an enhanced level of accounts protection which makes authentication even simpler and, most importantly, more secure,” comments Marina Titova, Vice President for Consumer Business at Kaspersky.
Passkey functionality is now available on all platforms in the latest version of Kaspersky Password Manager. To create a passkey in Kaspersky Password Manager, first update the app to the latest version and grant it all necessary permissions. Then, open the website where you want to create the passkey and simply follow the in-app guidance to register and save it.
Africa’s Global Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, has once again, reaffirmed its leadership as one of the continent’s most innovative and resilient financial institutions, as the bank has, for the third time in five years, been named the African Bank of the year 2025 by the Banker.com.
UBA
UBA also won the Best Bank of the Year awards in nine of its 20 African subsidiaries, bringing its total awards this year to ten as UBA Benin, UBA Chad, UBA Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), UBA Liberia, UBA Mali, UBA Mozambique, UBA Senegal, UBA Sierra Leone, and UBA Zambia, all came out tops as the best banks in their respective countries, underscoring the bank’s strength across West, Central and Southern Africa and highlighting the depth of its Pan-African franchise.
The Banker.com, a leading global finance news publication published by the Financial Times of London, organises the annual Bank of the Year Awards, and this year’s edition was held at a grand ceremony at the Peninsula, London, on Wednesday.
The Chief Executive Officer, UBA UK, Deji Adeyelure, received the awards on behalf of the bank, representing the Group Managing Director/CEO, Oliver Alawuba, and was accompanied by the bank’s Head Business Development, Mark Ifashe, and Head, Financial Institutions, Shilpam Jha.
The Banker’s awards are widely regarded as the most respected and rigorous in the global banking industry, celebrating institutions that demonstrate outstanding performance, innovation and strategic execution.
In its remarks on UBA’s winnings, the banker.com said, “For the third time in five years, UBA Group has won the coveted Bank of the Year award for Africa. UBA Group time after time punches above its weight against its larger African rivals. The bank this year also takes home nine separate country awards (one more than it gained for its last continental win in 2024), equivalent to around a quarter of the awards for the continent, and more than any of its continent-wide rivals.”
Continuing, it said, “Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that the awards were won across a broad geographic spread, going to lenders based in the Economic Community of West African States (Benin, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and former member Mali), the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (Chad, Republic of Congo) and the Southern African Development Community (Mozambique, Zambia). Its award wins were particularly notable in the highly competitive categories for Benin and Mozambique.”
The Banker also highlighted UBA’s strong financial performance and commitment to future growth. In 2024, the Group recorded a 46.8 per cent increase in assets and a 6.1 per cent rise in pre-tax profits in local currency terms, while continuing to invest significantly in talent and technology. West Africa remains UBA’s heartland, with operating revenue and profit increasing by 87 per cent and 89 per cent respectively in H1 2025.
The bank’s digital and innovation leadership was equally recognised. During the year under review, and launched its Advance Top-Up buy-now-pay-later feature on the *919# USSD platform, expanding financial access for customers, while the bank’s chatbot Leo continued its strong growth trajectory, with transaction volumes rising by 29 per cent year-on-year in H1 2025. Notably, in August, Leo became the first African banking chatbot to enable cross-border payments via the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS).
UBA’s Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Oliver Alawuba, while reacting to the achievement, said the recognition affirms the bank’s long-term strategy and customer-first philosophy.
“This honour reflects the strength of our Pan-African network, the trust of our customers, and the dedication of our people. Winning Africa’s Bank of the Year for the third time in five years is not by chance; it is a testament to disciplined execution, innovation, and a deep understanding of the markets we serve,” Alawuba said.
“Our nine country awards across diverse regions of Africa show that UBA is not just growing, but growing with impact. We remain committed to driving financial inclusion, supporting economic development, and deploying technology that makes banking simpler, faster, and more accessible to Africans everywhere,” he added.
United Bank for Africa is one of the largest employers in the financial sector on the African continent, with 25,000 employees group-wide and serving over 45 million customers globally. Operating in twenty African countries, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, France and the United Arab Emirates, UBA provides retail, commercial and institutional banking services, leading financial inclusion and implementing cutting-edge technology.
Africa’s workforce is embracing artificial intelligence (AI) at a faster pace than global peers, but pressure is mounting for organisations to ramp up digital skills development as generative AI (GenAI) begins reshaping roles across industries.
This is according to PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2025, which shows a continent ready for AI-enabled transformation, but facing a narrowing window to prepare, through skills development initiatives.
The survey, covering nearly 50 000 workers worldwide and 1 753 across South Africa, Algeria, Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria, finds that African employees are already integrating AI into daily operations.
Sixty-four percent of respondents in Africa used AI tools in the past year, compared to 54% globally, and the sentiment is overwhelmingly positive. While only 17% report using GenAI every day, confidence in its benefits is high: 76% believe GenAI improves work quality, and 72% expect AI-driven productivity gains within three years.
In SA, executives are even more bullish, as 91% say AI has already lifted both productivity and work quality — a signal that leadership is pushing harder toward AI-enabled ways of working, notes the survey.
However, this optimism is coupled with rising concern about future readiness. Only 35% of African workers believe their skills will still be relevant three years from now. With GenAI expected to affect nearly half of all job roles, PwC warns that the continent’s workforce risks falling behind unless organisations accelerate large-scale reskilling.
Despite the pressures, employees are not standing still. PwC notes that African workers outperform their global peers in proactive learning, recording 15% higher participation in skills-building and receiving 6% more support from managers. This indicates that both workers and immediate supervisors recognise the pace of AI adoption and are pushing to adapt.
PwC Africa people and organisation leader, Dr Dayalan Govender, says the moment calls for decisive leadership. Organisations, he argues, must integrate AI into workforce strategies, accelerate digital adoption, and expand upskilling programmes at scale.
“Africa’s workforce is optimistic and ready for change, but leaders must accelerate digital adoption and invest in future-ready skills to convert this optimism into sustainable growth,” he says.
Beyond the technology shift, the survey captures a workforce hungry for growth but constrained by financial pressure. Many employees are preparing to make career moves: 45% plan to request a raise, and another 45% aim for a promotion in the next year. Yet household financial stability remains strained, with only a third of respondents reporting any money left over for savings.
Still, Africa’s workplaces continue to show strong foundations of trust and purpose — elements PwC believes will be critical in navigating GenAI disruption. More than 55% of workers trust management, and two-thirds say their work feels meaningful, both above global averages.
With AI adoption rising and employees motivated to reinvent their careers, PwC warns that the coming years will determine whether Africa’s early optimism translates into long-term competitiveness as GenAI transforms the world of work.
The report calls for embedding AI into workforce strategies to bridge the gap between optimism and practical adoption, scaling upskilling initiatives to prepare for GenAI disruption, and fostering trust and psychological safety to retain talent and drive innovation.
“For employers, these findings are a stark reminder that they can and should do more to help workers understand, adopt, and embrace AI’s transformative power.
“Employers may need to pay special attention to entry-level workers, nearly a third of whom say they’re worried to a large or very large extent about AI’s impact on their future, even as they’re also curious (47%) and optimistic (38%) about its long-term societal effects,” notes the report.
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