Ramona Adams
A new Trend Micro report lists cybersecurity predictions in 2017 that will influence the movement of the threat landscape such as a rise in ransomware and email compromise attacks.
The report titled “The Next Tier” predicts the number of new ransomware families will grow by 25 percent in 2017 which translates to approximately 15 new families every month, Trend Micro says.
Ransomware growth reached the “tipping point” in 2017 but a period of stabilization will urge cybercriminals to go after more victims, platforms and bigger targets, the report stated.
Trend Micro forecasts more cyber attacks will exploit Internet of Things devices for highly-targeted or Distributed Denial of Service attacks in the coming year.
Cybercriminals will use malware like Mirai to carry out DDoS attacks and target service-oriented, news, company and political sites from 2017 onward.
Migration to industrial IoT will lead to “unprecedented” risks facing organizations and customers in 2017, the report noted.
Business email compromise incidents become a more appealing mode of attack for cybercriminals due to its simplicity, cost-effectiveness and relatively faster and higher payout, Trend Micro said.
The average financial gain of a successful BEC attack is $140,000 and such operations are hard to detect since emails do not contain malicious payloads or binaries, according to the report.
Business process hackers will seek targets beyond the finance department to tap into fund transfers and cybercriminals could access payment delivery systems to intercept payment for actual vendors, Trend Micro predicted.
The company also forecasts Adobe and Apple will discover more software flaws than Microsoft; entities will use social media for cyber propaganda; and attackers will use new techniques to evade modern security technologies.
The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation will increase administrative costs of global entities that gather, process and store EU citizens’ personal data, the report said.
Affected enterprises will also update policies and business processes ahead of GDPR’s 2018 implementation.
Trend Micro recommended for enterprises to deploy security technologies such as machine learning; advanced anti-malware; antispam and antiphishing at the web and messaging gateways; web reputation; breach detection systems; application control and others to mitigate attacks.
