One of the areas of top concern in this modern world of technology is cybersecurity. Take, for instance, a lot of cybersecurity damages that were recorded in 2018, and there were security defects in billions of microchips as well as widespread data violations. Other top cybersecurity concerns are attacks using harmful software, which are capable of locking down computer systems until their owners pay some amount as ransom.
You must be wondering how then can all these attacks be curbed? The solution isn’t farfetched. In order to deal with cases of ransomware attacks, mega-breaches, and other threatening cyber-attacks, including threats to web-connected consumer devices, security groups such as cybersecurity boot camps, must make such issues the point of their focus. In doing so, however, cyber defenders as well have to be mindful of other emerging threats.
Top 5 Emerging Cyber-Threats To Worry About In 2021
Top on the list of some cyber-threats that should be looked out for in 2021 includes the following:
Hacking Smart Contracts
Smart contracts are software programs that are usually stored on a blockchain. Once conditions encoded in them are met, hacking smart contracts automatically execute some form of digital asset exchange. As a result of this, entrepreneurs are spiking their use for money transfers to other forms of intellectual property protection. Even at that, the change is still in its early stage of development, and sometimes, bugs are formed by some of the researchers. On the flip side, others are formed by hackers who have failed in their efforts to loot millions of dollars, which translates to a huge sum of cryptocurrencies.
In order to curb Hacking Smart Contract, Dawn Song, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who is also the CEO of Oasis Labs startup, is currently working on ways to do this using some special hardware. According to Professor Song, he believes that there is an urgent need to build privacy-preserving technologies into smart contract platforms.
Phishing
Phishing has long been shown to be one of the cheapest and easiest ways to compromise targets. As a result of this, phishing has remained one of the most popular cyber-attack tools for hackers.
In most cases, phishing attacks appear to be normal, harmless, and everyday email which is sent and received from trusted sources. However, it is usually saddening that on delivery, these emails turn out to be malware to your computer or device, which gives the hacker express access to your database.
Worthy of note and mention is the fact that cyber hackers are stepping up real hard when it comes to their impersonation skills. To scale through and have a clean attack, they utilize some sophisticated attack formats such as advanced social engineering methodologies or even credential stuffing.
How this works is that cyber hackers make the content of their mails to be directly related to a potential set of victims. With this, they lure their potential victims to engage and let out some very confidential pieces of information.
Consequently, this form of a cyber attack has been very difficult to identify, even for technology experts. In fact, phishing is said to be the most sophisticated form of cyber hacking.
AI- and ML-Driven Attacks: Cybercrime with Advanced Tools
Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as Machine Learning (ML) techniques developed, are originally being used to fights and curb various degrees of cybercrimes. Same as becoming “table stakes” in various improved security strategies. Regrettably, these same tools which are used to fight cybercrimes are being used against vulnerable victims.
With the availability of ML and AI tools for various users, cyber hackers now use these tools to improve the sophistication of their cyber attacks. In fact, with these tools, attacks can be multiplied, and cybercrime can reach all-new and unexpected levels. It will interest you to know that most of the recent widespread ransomware attacks are ML and AI-inspired.
Breaking Encryption Using Quantum Computers
It is a prediction come true that security experts predicted that quantum computers could turn out to crack encryption that currently helps protect everything from e-commerce platforms, transactions to even health records.
The hope here, however, is that quantum machines are still at an early age, and it could take a couple of years before they turn into a full-fledged threat. However, products such as cars in which their software can easily be updated remotely will still be in use for a decade or more.
However, it is possible that the level of encryption in such cars today could ultimately become open to some quantum attack in the nearest future. This has been found to be true about some codes used in protecting sensitive data such as financial records, that needs to be preserved for a couple of years to come.
Source: ictframe.com
With this, it is therefore imperative that cybersecurity boot camps should roll up their sleeves to prevent the colossal damages that are likely to occur in the future from these quantum attacks.
In line with this, a report from a group of quantum experts in the US is urging individuals as well as organizations to start adopting new methods of encryption algorithms that can withstand a quantum attack. As a result of this report, government organizations such as the US National Institute of Standards and Technology are making a concerted effort for post-quantum cryptography, which will make this whole process a lot easier to accomplish.
Endpoint Attacks: SaaS and Cloud Trends Enhancing Cyber Hackings
It’s expected that cyber-attacks will continue to grow in size as companies move more and more resources into the “cloud.” With this, it then makes it easier for intruders to bye-pass security measures. Generally, with the bring-your-own-device society that we find ourselves today, in addition to the proliferation of SaaS providers for data services, cyber hackers now have plenty preys on which they can feast on.
However, one of the toughest challenges that most individuals and organizations face today is how to secure access to their off-premise resources. Like you can rightly tell, most of these resources are usually used as the gateway for bad actors to get into your network. After all, every attack usually begins at the endpoint, whether it is serving as the true target or not.
So, it doesn’t matter whether the vulnerability is coming from the unauthorized use of Shadow IT applications together with company resources or users. Wherever the source may be from, anyone can get hacked off the corporate network through other means.
Conclusion
Cybersecurity is a major issue of concern. The threat is really alarming. Thus, it is essential for companies as well as all privacy-minded users to increase their awareness of the various trending cybersecurity threats around.
However, it is possible to guard against cyber risks on your own, mainly by placing this responsibility on IT departments who then pass this task to other trusted security services providers/managers. Well, in an attempt to curb the rising and emerging cyber threats, ample knowledge on cybersecurity from cybersecurity boot camps is highly recommended.