8 Emerging CyberSecurity Threats That Can Affect Your Business In 2020
4 min read
Cybersecurity industry is evolving with each passing day. New cybersecurity issues arise and hackers are always looking for vulnerabilities that they can exploit. This has forced cybersecurity professionals to stay vigilant about emerging cybersecurity attacks. This way, they can cope with cyber-attacks in a much better way.
In this article, you will learn about eight emerging cybersecurity threats that could impact your business.
- Financially Motivated Cyber Attacks
Although, most crimes have financial motives behind them, but the ransom ware and crypto jacking is at a completely different level. Crypto jacking can easily slip through the radar and runs in the background while hogging your resources. It can use your infrastructure to mine crypto currencies and bring it down to its knees. Ransom ware can make your data inaccessible and ask you to pay before you can get access to your data back. These financially motivated cyber-attacks will continue to grow in the future. That is why it is important to take regular backup of your data and protect your databases and best dedicated servers.
- Attacks on Supply Chain
As more and more businesses shift to cloud, they will have to work with third party vendors. This can encourage cybercriminals to target supply chain in different regions of the world. The best way to protect your supply chain from these attacks is to use a VPN. Try to avoid downloading apps from external libraries because it might contain malware, which can give hackers access to your supply chain. As a business, you don’t want that.
- Talent Gap In Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity spending will reach a whopping 133.8 billion by 2021. The problem is that there is a acute shortage of skilled and talented individuals in cybersecurity who can fill all the new jobs that will be created due to those investments. This makes it tough for businesses to protect themselves from emerging cybersecurity threats. Hiring a cybersecurity expert will cost businesses an arm and a leg but they don’t have an alternative. Some businesses are looking to invest in cybersecurity training of their employees or buying cybersecurity tools to bridge this talent gap in the industry.
- Advanced Phishing Exploits
Social engineering attacks have been around for quite some time now and they will continue to be present until we increase awareness. In future, these phishing attacks will grow in numbers and complexity, so you need to upgrade your learning too otherwise, you won’t be able to protect your business from these malicious attacks. Hackers will leverage AI and machine learning to create smart and highly targeted and personalized emails, which cannot be detected easily. Companies should not only organize cybersecurity trainings for their employees but also test their knowledge through mock exercises.
- Cyber attacks Targeting the Grid
One of the biggest shifts we will notice in future would be in hacker’s target. Instead of targeting the individual systems, cyber attackers will set their sights on critical entreasures power grid, transportation systems and health care systems to cripple cities and countries. The worst part, it is easy, and they don’t have not have to go online for it either. Hackers can easily send an electromagnetic pulse which can knock down the complete electricity infrastructure of a country of city. Most countries don’t think of such attack as a major threat and hence, don’t secure their critical infrastructure but in future they will have to otherwise, they will be playing in the hands of cybercriminals.
- Attacks on Autonomous Systems and IoT Devices
As the number of connected autonomous systems and IoT devices increases so does the risk of cybersecurity attacks targeting those devices and systems. Yes, this IoT devices and autonomous systems might offer you convenience and let you automate mundane tasks, but it does so as the cost of security and privacy. With everything from phones to cars to appliances connected, the risk is higher.
Yes, you might succeed in securing your phone and other computing devices such as laptop and desktop computer but what about a refrigerator, washing machine and car. This can lead to dire consequences. Use stronger passwords, multi factor authentication and endpoint security solutions that can minimize the risk of IoT based attacks.
- State Sponsored Attacks
How does a hacker look like? The first image that comes in your mind might look something like this. A shadowy person hacking from his basement in the dark wearing a hoodie. Things have changed and hackers are no longer alone. They possess an army and, in some cases, complete enterprises, which are backed by estate. State sponsored attacks will continue to become more popular as countries use their hackers to attack critical installation of their enemies located in other parts of the world. This could even trigger a traditional war. We might see such attack emerge from smaller and less powerful countries and target critical infrastructure of superpowers.
- Personal Attack
The shift from individuals to critical infrastructure does not mean that you can breathe easy. In fact, cyberbullying and cyber stalking will continue to be a threat, which can have dangerous consequences for individuals. We might see these crimes start online and end offline with violence.
With a meagre 20% of cybercrime being reported to law enforcement agencies, hackers will be encouraged to launch these types of attacks. Education institutions and workplaces such as colleges and universities are at a higher risk of cyber bullying as these places do not have a policy for these types of crimes hence, it can easily go unnoticed.
Conclusion
We might be heading towards a world where cybercriminals can dictate terms and the shortage of talented and skilled cybersecurity professionals further aggravates the situation. Businesses have to take steps to cope up with these challenges whether it is in the form of training their employees or buying and implementing the advanced cybersecurity solutions.
Which cybersecurity threats will impact businesses in 2020 in your opinion? Let us know in the comments section below.
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