Booz Allen, the American IT consulting firm has released a report outlining the 8 critical cyber threats which are predicted to prevail in this year. And market experts from the Virginia based consulting firm say that the insights are being offered after their experts studied the cyber landscape for the past three consecutive years.
The outlined cyber threats are as follows-
1.) Nations like China, Russia, and Iran might use IoT devices in cyber espionage operations which could intensify the cyber war.
2.) Information warfare will increasingly target organizations
3.) Apparently, Chip and PIN shortcomings will see shortcomings
4.) Hackers will try their best to weaponize the Adware networks in this year
5.) The technology of Artificial Intelligence will play a vital role in information warfare, by providing to hackers methods to create amazingly convincible and highly manipulated video footage.
6.) Attack surface of wireless networks is said to expand profusely in this year
7.) Ultra sophistication filled hacking techniques will be used by state-sponsored actors
8.) Water Utilities and power grids will become prime targets of state-funded hackers on a global note.
Experts from Booz Allen say that combating with these threats will be tough, especially to nations which operate in tight budgets.
And the only advice to defend against such attacks is to go for layered security and some pro-active cybersecurity measures.
Among them, blocking threats from known sources in an automated way will be the first line of defense to help gets rid of inbound and outbound threats. At the same time, keeping the software and patches up to date will help curb some threats that find their way through software vulnerabilities.
Conducting third-party Pen-tests on an occasional note will do more good to organizations as it helps in weeding out the susceptibilities that cyber crooks may exploit.
Creating awareness among the employees and asking them to practice cyber hygiene might prove effective in mitigating cyber risks in time.
