December 2022

The future isn’t what it used to be. This adage, if a little trite, has taken on a whole new meaning after our lives turned on a dime with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. And as the world was bouncing back from the depths of the public health emergency, Russia’s war on Ukraine inflicted unfathomable loss and misery and sent ripple effects throughout the rest of the world, adding to the sense of the permacrisis of recent years.

Against this backdrop, we’re closing the book on another year like no other – all while being even more hooked on all things digital than ever before. Going about our days without tech is practically unthinkable, and this applies to various aspects of our digitally-driven lives, notably work, education, health, leisure, and social interactions. After throwing a lifeline to companies and people in 2020, technology continues to cement itself as a linchpin of today’s society and the foundation for human progress and our future.

As another old adage says, “it’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future”. But it’s safe to say that we’ll continue to navigate an increasingly hybrid world, one that may ultimately require some of us to take a long hard look in the mirror and confront the blurring divides between the personal and the professional and the physical and the digital. But in what shape and form exactly?

We invite you to read the collective reflections of ESET experts about these and other changes in our behavior online and what kinds of implications these shifts may have for our lives – and our security and privacy – going forward.