Conducting diligence on vendor data  security practices has arguably risen to the level of industry standard and practice. (Photo Credit: your123/Adobe Stock)

While the U.S. and other countries recognize every January 28th as Data Privacy Day in an international effort to spread awareness about online privacy, it's a good reminder about the importance of respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust, according to the National Cybersecurity Alliance. In honor of this educational endeavor, below are five issues in the data privacy and cybersecurity space that businesses may see trending in 2023.

Join our LinkedIn group, ALM Small Business Adviser, a space where small business owners can gather to network, have discussions and keep up with the trends and issues affecting their industries. Join our LinkedIn group, ALM Small Business Adviser, a space where small business owners can gather to network, have discussions and keep up with the trends and issues affecting their industries.

1.  Increase in Extortion-Only Cyber Attacks — While ransomware attacks have been on the rise since 2020, a recent trend has emerged where threat actors are bypassing ransomware malware and encryption tactics and going straight to data theft. If a victim company does not pay the extortion demand, the threat actors engage in increasingly aggressive tactics, like publicly posting the stolen data for sale on a shame site and contacting employees and customers of the victim company to apply external pressure on the victim to make the payment.

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