The year 2017 witnessed major cybersecurity disruptions around the world, and as we enter the year 2018, we can expect to see cybercriminals making this trend more profound by using machine learning and artificial intelligence to launch more virulent malware, DDoS attacks and vandalism.
Though 2018 will surely bring more connectivity and embark on proficient digital transformation initiatives, the continual digital transformation entailed in our lives has already positioned cybercriminals to attack on all the devices connected to the IOT (Internet of Things) - both in offices and homes.
But at the same time, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a proficient tool in the hands of defenders as well, which can completely alter the cybersecurity landscape.
Here are some cyber security predictions for the year 2018:
Blockchain will expand its functionality outside of cryptocurrencies but cyber criminals will keep focusing on coins and exchanges
Blockchain is known to offer prominent security to its users and thus, it is now finding applications outside of crypto-currencies to enhance its security blanket to.
By accessing the IoT, Blockchain is finding ways to expand its functionality in inter-bank settlements as well. However, this process is still in its infancy and hence, it is out of cybercriminals focus.
Also, cybercriminals would focus on attacking coin-exchanges and users’ coin wallets due to its high returns, instead of attacking the Blockchain technology itself.
Victims will receive a request to install coin-miners on their smart devices (computers and mobile devices) that will allow cybercriminals to handle their CPU.
Cyber criminals will use artificial intelligence (AI) & machine learning (ML) to conduct attacks
Undoubtedly, businesses are accessing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for effective IT solutions and to build cybersecurity. But at the same time, it is also being used by the cybercriminals to conduct attacks. This year,we will witness AI versus AI in a cybersecurity context.
Supply Chain Attacks Will Become Mainstream
Unlike last year, this year we will enter the age of the software supply chain attacks that have been a mainstay of the classical intelligence including upstream contractors, companies and suppliers. These attacks find the advantage of the human intelligence to find the weakest link in the chain and are now moving to the cybercriminal space.
By accessing the available information of suppliers, contractors, and partnerships, cybercriminals can attack the weakest link.
Organisations Will Still Struggle With Security-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Today, businesses are continually moving to an SaaS environment to drive business agility and thus are facing security challenges as significant changes like access control, data control and data encryption are ongoing in SaaS apps.
Though businesses have understood these problems, they will continue to struggle with these issues in the year 2018 as well.
IoT Devices Will Be Hijacked and Used in DDoS Attacks
The year 2017 witnessed massive DDoS attacks that damaged millions of IoT connected devices. And cybercriminals will continue this practice of exploiting the poor security settings and management of home IoT devices.
Furthermore, they will hack inputs and sensors of these devices and will feed audio, visual or other faked inputs to make it work as they want in contrast to user expectations.
Automation of some threat-detection tasks will increase
Your IT security team deals with huge volumes of alerts and data on a daily basis to determine what could possibly be a threat to the company. This volume is bound to increase in 2018, especially driven by more attacks and attack vectors. Since, filtration of alert data is a repetitive process and tedious work, it makes sense to automate this process using the appropriate software.
Businesses have already started to take advantage of machine learning based tools that help them filter alerts which reduces the burden on their security team. Hence, this trend is expected to flourish in 2018. This is mainly because of the future increase in the threats and restriction in your security talent pool.
With properly deployed automated tools, a company can effectively predict which alerts could be possible threats of them. This gives the organisation a confidence in the technology and helps them understand where it can and cannot help them.
Moreover, it encourages security teams in expanding their implementation of automation and in places where it makes sense to use it.
Due to the increasing threats and cyber-attacks, these growing opportunities would show genuine concern in protecting data. It would also require organisations to have a proper security infrastructure in place.
In other words, you earn trust from your clients and partner businesses when they realise doing business with you is safe and secure.
Will become more malicious and invasive. Prevention is key but knowledge is required
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