The year 2017 witnessed some of the biggest cyber attacks of all times. This includes WannaCry Cyber Attack propelled by North Korea targeting more than 250,000 computers worldwide, NotPetya cyber attack on companies operating in Ukraine & Russia and the much-publicized Equifax data breach which even led to the resignation of the CEO after data of more than 143 million US Citizens was found to be compromised.
And according to Gartner, Information security spending is said to reach $86.4 billion by the end of 2017 and will probably cross the $110 billion mark by the end of next year.
After reading the above-said content, much of you might show interest in finding out the most dangerous cyber attacks to be anticipated in 2018.
So, Cybersecurity Insiders brings to you a gist of the top 5 cyber threats which are expected to create a lot of buzz in the cyberspace next year.
Cryptojacking- As the cryptocurrency rate against the USD is projected to escalate in 2018; it will proportionately create conducive environments for hackers to launch crypto jacking attacks. And as British companies are trying to stockpile bitcoins to use them as ransomware hush money, more hackers will be interested in siphoning the crypto from the companies operating in UK and Europe to become millionaires or billionaires on an instant note. So, companies, individuals or groups trading or generating digital currency will become sure targets of the hackers in the upcoming year.
A surge in Powershell based Cyber Attacks- Early this year; many companies operating in Saudi Arabia were found to be digital compromised due to the use of Macros in MS word files. Hackers launched an attack with an information-stealing Trojan which made the government websites act as proxies for the command and control servers maintained by cyber crooks. As these Powershell based attacks or malicious script-based attacks are incredibly difficult to identify they made the cybercriminals make merry in the past year. In the coming year, more such attacks are predicted to increase and hope technology giants like Microsoft come up with preventive measures which will help their product users isolate themselves from such attacks.
Cyber Crime from State Funded Actors will Perpetuate- As nations like North Korea, Russia, and China started showing their valiance in cyberspace, a rise in cyber attacks on West from state-funded actors such as Lazarus group of North Korea will be witnessed. By the mid of 2018, the attack proportion will reach a saturation point which could even trigger a World War 3 led by US President Donald Trump.
Security Softwares will be exploited to the core- The year 2018 will witness cybercriminals targeting trusted programs and the software and hardware supply of companies offering security software. The objective of them will be to attack and gain control of devices and then manipulate users wholeheartedly. And as these events are brought into the limelight by the media, the perception of businesses and the public will change on the security software, particularly those offering antivirus solutions.
Worms will be used to launch malware- Next year, cyber crooks are expected to use more worms to launch a new variant of malware families. This is because worms spread faster than any other methods in cyberspace making them to tactically amass a large number of victims on a quick note.
Note- The above said predictions of Top 5 Cyber threats of 2018 are the only handful of the many threats we will see. And let’s hope the solution offering companies evolve with the threats and provide our multiple layers of protection by all means.
