1. AI Powered Attack:
Just a few years ago, Artificial Intelligence was an ultramodern notion that could only be found in science- fiction scripts or movies. However, today, AI is a real-world concept that is driving the cybersecurity industry to astounding heights. According to a report by Webroot Inc., a private American company that offers Internet security for consumers and businesses, Artificial Intelligence is used by almost 87% of the US cybersecurity specialists. However, AI may prove to be an ambiguous weapon as 91% of security mavens are concerned that hackers might use Artificial Intelligence to launch even more sophisticated cyber-attacks. Over 60% of the professionals present in a recently held conference on cybersecurity at Black Hat USA 2017, admitted that they believed a cyber-attack boosted by Artificial Intelligence could take place anytime in the next 12 months. This survey was conducted by Cylance, an American software firm that provides Artificial Intelligence-based advanced threat prevention.
Some of the potentials for AI-related attacks consist of:
- Use of chatbots for spams or phishing.
- Use of password guessing for brute force attacks.
- Cryptographic attacks.
- Attack obfuscation.
2. Upsurge in Sandbox-evading Malware
In the wake of data-security and data prevention, new techniques have been coming up for the detection and prevention of malware infections. Among such methods that are being utilized for evading malware, sandboxing technology has become progressively prevalent in the cybersecurity arena. Due to the efficiency of this technology, cyber-criminals are trying to work on ways to dodge this widespread technology. Sandboxing is an alternative to outmoded signature-based malware defensive techniques, which is often useful. The firmly controlled resources provided to the guest programs to run in is one of the primary reasons why sandboxing evasion is an active malware evading technique. The year 2018 is predicted to observe a trend of widespread usage of Sandbox mechanism for data-security as it ensures zero-day detection capabilities.
3. Prominence of EU GDPR Compliance
It is expected that a lot of businesses would find it hard to comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation regulations by its deadline, i.e., 25th May 2018. Cybereason’s (Cyberreason is a cybersecurity data analytics platform) Curry says. “CISOs should not let a good crisis go to waste, but I don’t think it’s going to change things much. They may get some more budget, but then things will return to normal … unless fines start.” If found non-compliant with the regulations, EU secrecy regulators might impose fines of up to four percent of a firm’s total profit (annually) or approximately €20 million, whichever is greater.
A fresh survey conducted by Collyer Bristow’s demonstrates that almost around 55% of UK businesses are unaware of GDPR and the deadline. Additionally, around 61 percent of U.S. corporations have not yet started with the implementation process of their GDPR compliance programs. A recent Forrester report stated, “80% of companies will fail to comply with GDPR”. It is to be noted that if any firm fails to comply with the compliance by May 2018, the EU will send a clear communication by banishing them from trading.
4. Evolving Multi-Factor Authentication
As per the 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report, submitted by Verizon, “63% of confirmed data breaches involved leveraging weak, stolen or default passwords.” This is largely because most organizations are still using single-factor authentication, which essentially depends on “something you know.” Implementing MFA augments the cyber-safety by necessitating handlers to provide a randomly generated key in addition to their existing passwords. In the recent past, the number of cyber-attacks has amplified abundantly. Hackers are finding new and effective ways to breach cyber-security. In this regard, it is very important for the organizations to take necessary steps and protect themselves, their employees and the data as well.2018 is expected to see a drift towards multi-factor authentication on significant accounts of businesses all varieties to ensure that they’re keeping their clients’ accounts safe, even if it delays the user experience. The MFA marketplace’s development is directly proportional to the upcoming guidelines and agreement commitments, such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and PCI DSS.
5. Blockchain
As the concept of Blockchain helps in resolving the ‘trust’ problem between counterparties at a very fundamental level, it is expected to grow exponentially in the year 2018. It was evident by the end of the year 2017 that Blockchain is going to play a very vital part of cybersecurity in the upcoming future as the valuation of the cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum rose to spectacular levels. The blockchains provide no ‘hackable’ entry because of their distributed nature, hence they provide they ensure more safety and data-security when it comes to database-driven transactional structures. Some of the features of the blockchain that makes it set apart are:
- No Human Intervention for Authentication
- No Centralized Storage
- Timestamped and Signed Transactions
- Easy Denial of Transactions
6. Ransomware
One of the major problems when we discuss about cybersecurity and cyberattacks in the modern internet is Ransomware. There has been a rise in the concept of ransomware-As-A-Service and other related specialties in the cyber-criminal world. Steve Grobman, Chief Technology Officer for McAfee, LLC, has been quoted saying: “The evolution of ransomware in 2017 should remind us of how aggressively a threat can reinvent itself as attackers dramatically innovate and adjust to the successful efforts of defenders.” Last year on May 12th, 2017, the biggest ever cyber-attack in Internet history named WannaCry took place. It shook the web world, with the damage epicenter being in Europe.
Some key characteristics of ransomware are:
- Unbreakable encryption
- Scramble the file names
- Payments in bitcoins
- Geographical Targeting
- Payment time-limits
7. Internet of Things
One of the hottest topics in the cybersecurity arena as well in the technology sector is the Internet of Things (IoT). It is estimated that by the year 2020 close to around 20 billion devices will be connected. A report by Research Nester indicates that the worldwide Internet of Things marketplace is projected to reach USD 724.2 Billion by the year 2023, or increasing at a CAGR of 13.2% through the prediction time-period of 2016-2023. The report specifies that the significance of Internet of Things is expanding around businesses and administrative establishments. The year 2018 will witness an increase in the approaches in which IOT will affect our lives.
