Ransomware and malware that will multiply, clouds and critical infrastructures under attack, and a particular focus by hackers on mobile devices and the internet of things. These are the issues to be monitored according to Check Point during the 2018. According to analysts at the Israeli cybersecurity firm, ransomware has been a goose that lays golden eggs for criminals, as well as a diversion for more destructive purposes. “How can we forget Petya - writes Check Point in its forecasts - which at first glance looked like ransomware but which in reality caused damage by blocking data. All types of users, from consumers to companies, have fallen prey to these kinds of attacks, creating the reasonable suspicion that they will continue to grow ”. According to Check Point, therefore, “we can expect to see large-scale and well-orchestrated attacks around the world along the lines of the WannaCry attack that occurred in early 2017. We can also expect to see criminals get creative in their extortion tactics, such as 'if you infect two contacts, we'll get the data back to you at a lower cost.' Overall, as operating systems strengthen their security, we expect a decline in the use of exploits to target vulnerabilities, in favor of an increase in the use of basic hacking techniques based on human error. However, targeted attacks are emerging that use sophisticated tools sponsored by some nations, and the attack rate will likely continue to rise. Cloud infrastructures are also of particular concern. According to Check Point, it is worth remembering that this technology and the one that physically supports it are relatively new and constantly evolving. For this reason “there are still serious security problems that provide a backdoor for hackers to access corporate systems and spread rapidly across networks. Misconceptions about responsibilities and the level of security required to operate safely within a cloud environment are common, as are misconfigurations, which leave the door open to breaches, ”explains the IT security company. During the 2017, analysts recall, more than 50% of security breaches managed by the Check Point incident response team were cloud-related and over 50% related to the violation of SaaS app accounts or hosted servers. “As the use of cloud-based file sharing services increases, data leaks will continue to be a major concern for organizations moving to the cloud. This has also been seen recently when a breach by the consultancy firm Deloitte allowed hackers to access the confidential data of several clients ”. In addition, the growing adoption of SaaS-based emails, such as Office 365 and Google's G-Suite, are attractive targets for cybercriminals and “we expect an increase in cloud attacks in 2018,” the 2018 forecast reads. In terms of mobile devices, which according to Check Point are now part of the corporate IT fabric everywhere, “these continue to be rarely, if ever, properly protected, despite the risk they present. We will continue to discover flaws in mobile operating systems that highlight the need for organizations to take a more serious approach to protecting their mobile infrastructure and endpoint devices against malware, spyware and other cyber attacks, ”explain the Israeli company researchers. Mobile malware in 2018 will continue to proliferate, particularly for mobile banking, as the 'Malware as a Service' (MaaS) industry continues to grow. The MaaS in fact allows the authors of the threats to reduce the technical obstacles necessary to launch an attack. "Cryptominers - recalls Check Point - rose to prominence in 2017 and we can expect to see more cryptographic malware released on mobile devices for cryptocurrency mining in the near future." Nothing good in the 2018 regarding critical infrastructures. Almost all, as Check Point recalls, "were designed and built before the advent of the threat of cyber attacks and, for this reason, even the simplest principles of cyber security were not taken into consideration within the projects". It has been fortunate to date that "there has not yet been a large-scale and successful attack on critical infrastructure impacting millions of people," says Check Point. The DDoS attack on DynDNS's domain directory service in 2016, which caused an internet outage and affected users of large web companies such as Netflix and Amazon, "offers an insight into what is possible with a cyber attack on a critical infrastructure. An attack of this type and scale will happen, and it would not be surprising to see it happen in the next 12 months, ”the cybersecurity company still remembers. Finally, attention in the 2018 to IoT devices that continue their unstoppable growth. “As more and more smart devices are integrated into the fabric of corporate networks, organizations will need to start using best security practices for their networks and the devices themselves,” advises Check Point. The potential attack surface expands as IoT device usage grows, and attacks on compromised IoT devices will continue to grow. Over the next year, Check Point continues, “we will see new variations of the Mirai and BlueBorne attacks.
