In 2022, the market faced malware attacks, phishing, Social Engineering and data leaks that led to sensitive data losses, financial losses, credibility of the organisations, and in some worst cases complete shutdown of the organisation under attack. Attacking government installations, especially critical infrastructures, are getting marked as specific targets by Hacktivist and cyberterrorists.
Keeping all these incidents under consideration, Digital world is entering the new year 2023 with at most precautionary measures and reinforced defences. Learn about the latest trends and threats and take action to protect your business or organization from these threats now .
Cybersecurity Predictions 2023
- Ransomware
- Cloud Attacks
- Critical Infrastructure Attack
- Phishing or Deep Fake Enabled Business Compromise
- API Ecosystem
Ransomware
AIDS Trojan, WannaCry, Cryptolocker, Petya, Bad Rabbit and Reveton don't these names sound familiar and scary at the same time? They indeed are scary malicious software or malware called Ransomware. Ransomware are specifically designed malware to attain access to sensitive data in one way or another and encrypt the network to deny access of rightful personnel. They demand ransom for the decryption key to regain the rightful access.
If Organisations prioritise cyber security, Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testings shall be undertaken to fill up the security gaps. This step can immensely reduce the probability of cyber attacks. Even with preventive measures, the chance of a Ransomware attack is awfully high.
While targeting an organisation with a ransom attack, Cyber attackers leverage the strategic and sensitive data without which the organisation could be crippled. Routine operations can be affected because of denial of access to important files and documents causing inconvenience to the organisations and their customers.
In the worst case scenario, organisations may be forced to shut down completely or reduce their operations significantly until the issue is solved. Thus organisations under attack are compelled to pay the ransom to restore access to the data.
Even after ransom payment, there is no guarantee of regained access or genuine decryption key from the cyber attackers. Unpredictable nature of attackers increases the probability of losing both data as well as the ransom amount, causing organisations to face downfall in multiple ends. IARM is an Information security company specialising in Ransomware recovery services. Consult IARM for more information on recovery services.
Cloud Attacks
Cyber attack on a Cloud computing system with malware or malicious code is called a cloud attack. Typically Cyber attackers inject a malicious service into the cloud to create malicious service implementation modules or virtual machine instances that could be related to SaaS, PaaS or IaaS. Cloud service providers with Open cloud based systems, Virtual machines, storage buckets and containers are much vulnerable to cloud attacks.
DDoS attack, Hypervisor DoS, Hypercall Attacks, and Exploiting Live migration of virtual machines or applications are the most common form of attacks cyber criminal launches on Cloud based organisations.
With swarming of thousands and thousands of botnets flooding the network creating a malicious traffic to slow down the network, Hyper Calling the network pretending to be a guest and exploits the organisations' Virtual machines or HyperJacking with a rootkit, Cyber attackers breaches and loot strategic and sensitive information.
As a preventive measure, Cyber Security Audit, which can identify most of the safety issues and vulnerability Assessment can be conducted periodically in order to maintain the cloud fortified.
Critical Infrastructure Attacks
Critical Infrastructures are installations that provide critical services to the market, people and Governments in general to perform day to day works smoothly. Generally Communications Sector, Commercial Facilities Sector, Critical Manufacturing Sector, Energy Sector, Defense Industrial Base Sector, Healthcare and Public Health Sector, Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste Sector, Transportation Systems Sector, Information Technology Sector And especially Financial Service sector.
One thing common between all these sectors is, DIGITALISATION of whole or partial operations. Ranging from Power grids to Nuclear reactors, every step of operations are digitised and it can be leveraged as Achilles heel by vested interestOne thing If one sector falls under an attack, the whole industry and in the worst case the whole country could easily become standstill. It is imperative to implement Cyber Security services for prevention of such attacks.
Critical Infrastructures usually possess unique vulnerabilities and security needs. So are Cyber attacks. Instead of attacking the data servers, Usually cyber attackers target the control system of the critical installation and attack the supply chain.
These attacks on private infrastructures usually end up with ransom demands. But on Government installations, these attacks can easily escalate into a full blown cyberwar between state and non- state actors.
Phishing or Deep Fake Enabled Business Compromise
Phishing is literally fishing data and information with a bait by leveraging ignorance of the to be victim. Scammers usually target the organisation through phishing emails in an attempt to gain access to sensitive data.
Email with a malicious link and a click bait message is sent by the scammers to employees. Once the link is clicked, malicious software specifically designed to clone access points, can create access of sensitive data to the scammers. Spear phishing, Whaling, Smishing are some most commonly used techniques that organisations should be aware of.
Along with Cyber security services, Awareness among the employees about white listed and black listed apks and websites links in order to minimise the probability of Phishing emails getting opened.
Deep fake technologies are sophisticated and advanced forms of Phishing. These Cyber attacks use deep fake technologies with artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to generate realistic-looking images, videos, or audio recordings of individuals. With a newly created identity.
Fake technologies impersonate themselves as a legitimate individual or entity and gain access to sensitive information and resources. As the fake entities are created by specialties AI and ML, even highly trained professionals fall short in identifying the malicious intent.
In layman’s term, Deep fake technologies are sophisticated burglars that can potentially engineer its own access in the to network and steal the whole set of sensitive data. Usually Start ups fall prey to this attack.
API Ecosystem
Maximum utilisation of Applications can be witnessed in the Service sector in order to connect with customers, providing end to end services, collecting feedback and also to communicate with inter departments of any organisation.
Cyber attackers utilise Application Program Interface ecosystem as entry points in order to infiltrate the network for sensitive data exploitation. Probability of an API ecosystem attack is directly proportional to the number of intermediate and end users of Applications.
As the entry points from across the globe and numerous in count, Once attackers enter the API ecosystem, tracking the malicious program, Bots or rootkit is significantly low even by trained experts.
Global village is the accurate nomenclature to describe today's digital world. Collective work is generally strength, but in case, security can easily be a domino effect of failures. Cyberattacks on a Tech company in Silicon Valley can directly affect employees in a Bangalore based company.
A non-state sponsored cyberterrorist from whichever corner of the world can attack and paralyse the whole Railway infrastructure. Each and every sector of the global market and governments of the world are interlinked with the unicorn thread of Digitization, Information Technology and automation.
This thread can be mutilated by starting in acute nature, as phishing, to critical infrastructure attacks that could cripple the entire country and its allies can be done with a skilled cyber attacker.
Whether the organisation is small or large, whether mushroomed startup or an MNC, the only way to secure your company in 2023 is to regularly perform Penetration Testing, Compliance with ISO27001 Compliance Audit Services and AICPA, upgrading firewalls and educating the employees about precautionary measures against social engineering. Be Aware and Be Safe in 2023!!
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