7 Cybersecurity trends that you can’t afford to ignore
Last
year was full of cybersecurity disasters, and what is the most certain thing is
that as cyberspace houses a treasure-trove of all kinds of sensitive
information – political and commercial information being the center of it – we
are going to see more cyber attacks and disasters in 2019.
Cyberwars
As a number of cyber attacks that were issued by nations occurred in recent
years –Stuxnet
(by Israel and the US); DDoS
attacks against Estonia,
electoral meddling
in the US (supposedly by Russia); and WannaCry attack
(by North Korea), including China which has been accused of intellectual
property theft attacks – it is not surprising that nation’s cybersecurity is
the top priority of the governments. Having this in mind, we can ponder that
there will be dozens of various schemes in 2019, some based on already familiar
themes, others including new ones. However, the prediction that stand out as
the most probable one is on-going and the most malicious cyberwarfare between
the most powerful players in the world – Russia, China, and the US, which will
continue to threaten to destabilize the world order, mainly using the Russian
method of engaging in cyber influence via proxies.
GDPR
General Data Protection Regulation presents the best way for many organizations
to protect themselves and simplify rules regarding the processing of
information about customers, clients, and prospects – as therefore it will
above all make businesses easier. It is mentioned that in 2019, a lot of
standards will be scrutinized and issues like privacy will be on the top of
agendas of the authorities. Starting in May last year it brought extremely important
changes and triggered the companies to implement at least some of the
GDPR-requirements or some kind of “data
protection system”. But there exist great risks for those protected by GDPR as
well – considering high prices of taxes – organizations may have motives to pay
extortions that are less expensive than GDPR regulatory fines. Also,
hacktivists could steal information not to extort – all in hope that the
organization will be fined or submitting hundreds of requests which can then
grind the organization to a halt.
Multi-factor
Authentication
Among many other cyber trends that are to happen – multi-factor authentication
will for sure continue to expand enormously. It adds a second layer of
protection to the account in addition to people’s name and password. It
prevents the huge number of cyber crimes that previously happened due to
two-factor authentication and will generally be used not only by big companies
but also by banks, organizations and is most effective when it is applied
across the board – on company’s cloud applications, services, resources etc.
Cryptomining
Malware
Known also by the other name – cryptojacking – is hidden software that infects
victims’devices with JavaScript code and harasses the processing power to
cryptocurrencies. It is noted that cryptominers have infected 10 times more
organizations last year. What makes things worse is that a huge amount of users
are not even aware that they use cryptocurrencing devices and it does not only
attacks laptops and desktops but also smartphones and it’s processors. Mozilla,
for example, tries to fight against it by implementing codes to block
cryptomining. However, cryptomining malware remains a serious threat to
individuals and companies and in order to oppose – the best solution is to at
least install a security system that can detect those threats.
IoT
Security
The most certain thing that is to happen is that more and more enterprises will
be connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) in 2019. IoT applications become
available through cloud providers, so businesses in various fields will be able
to add IoT with just a click. However, the thing that should not be forgotten is
that attacks on IoT will be more serious. Attacks will most certainly aim at
industrial control systems, for example, or on the power critical
infrastructures. Since a huge amount of IoT devices lack even the most basic
security, such as excellent passwords, everything that gets connected with IoT
could be used or manipulated. The conclusion is that using robust IoT security
is the top priority in order to eliminate the risks posed to any kind of
infrastructure.
Larger
DDoS Threats
DDoS are known as distributed denial of service attacks – which can happen at
any time, send spam, steal personal information and sensitive data. Over the
previous years we have seen cyberattacks that happened with great complexity
and against the biggest targets and those threats are to come in 2019 also.
Some of the most dangerous threats to be aware of include:
Ransomware
– taking control over a computer or network of computers and locking the users out – attackers can use
immense amounts of money from their victims with ease;
Phishing
attacks – very well known since the beginning of the internet, and even though
they are the simplest forms which are designed to steal information such as
passwords and credit card details, there’s a high expectancy that this pattern
will continue;
Botnets
– controlled by cyber attackers they are large-scale attacks which can affect
and involve millions of unwilling users and systems. They are generally used to
carry out DDoS attacks and it only takes one hostile email or download to
infect someone’s machine.
Computer
Viruses and Worms – last but not least – they have gradually become more
problematic and destructive and they also aim to steal personal information for
identity theft, for example.
Magecart
Cybercriminal group of digital credit card-skimming gangs has gained on
notoriety throughout the previous years. It evolves fast and the threats that
it imposes are more significant. Magecart attackers or groups are usually based
on supply chain attacks on websites and they usually keep a low profile in
order to stay undetected and steal payment information. Last year we have seen attacks on British Airways, TicketMaster and Newegg. The end of those attacks is nowhere to be
seen, actually, the situation will only get worse, even though the security
researchers have been doing their best to make evidence of the most prominent
hackers and to eliminate them.
