As we step into the new year, 2018 and embrace the fast changing digital world, on the behind we leave a trail of 2017 marred with cyber-attacks which have been more sophisticated and lethal in a way that sabotaged many industries to individuals with huge financial loses as well as personal data loss.
This raises the bar towards stronger cyber security and defence against the growing menace of cyber-attacks, which needs round the clock vigil and vigor to protect the industries and individuals for protecting the valuable data and business continuity.
The trends also showed that AI and machine learning becoming the de facto norms of adoption for future growth of businesses and industries. Cyber security solutions also now adopted it to be prepared for any untoward incidents arising out of the weakest link of cyber security that is human error.
eScan security research team has identified some of the key trends that will emerge stronger as well as the most targeted segments for security breaches. Some of them are as below:
2018 would be the year of crypto currencies, with numerous players vying for the stability of their currency and the latter half of 2018 may lead to market consolidation, with the emergence of top crypto currencies. Due to the spiraling price of the Bitcoin, in 2018, criminals would shift their focus to other crypto-currencies and this would be the game changer in the popularity of the crypto-currencies.
The hard forks of the Bitcoin resulted in the creation of Bitcoin Gold and Bitcoin Cash furthermore there are plans to introduce Bitcoin Silver, Bitcoin Platinum which would fuel the growth of Bitcoin. With so many forks, the investors would have to exercise caution as the very likelihood of fake crypto-currencies, scams and Ponzi schemes may surface in 2018.
2018, would also witness the custom pricing of the ransom based on the country and the capability of the targeted organization to pay up the ransom. Traditionally, spear-phishing was limited to Information Warfare; however, we may find organizations being actively targeted with specifically tailored Ransomware so as to increase the ROI for these criminals.
Besides, in 2017 IoT devices have been targeted by various botnets including the infamous Mirai botnet, which leveraged the vulnerabilities to further attack the critical infrastructure. 2018 would be a mixed bag and witness the emergence of implementation of security guidelines for the development of IoT devices amongst the vendors. Furthermore, 2018 would also be the year of IoT Botnet attacks.
Device manufacturers and App developers would find 2018 to be very lucrative but would also come under the radar of privacy activists and government for flouting the norms laid down for protection of their citizens' data. With the enforcement of GDPR just a few months away, the latter half of 2018 would witness a slew of privacy breaches by mobile app developers.
Furthermore, in 2017 users were bombarded with fake apps and vulnerabilities discovered in Android and iOS have forced companies like Google and Apple to innovate with their individual app stores and increase vigilance of the apps. 2018 would be no better and we may observe an increase in incidents involving compromised devices. Although, a few of these incidents might be attributed to Jail-Breaks / Rooting using automation, but the primary focus of the malware authors would be on fake apps.
Lastly, we can conclude that our users, readers and administrators should be on their toes to escape the deadly fangs of the cyber crooks. Implementation of multi-factor authentication after understanding the exact requirement thoroughly will help the organization in minimizing the chances of any kind of cyber-attacks. Use eScan and stay safe!ย