Welcome to a new year!
Unfortunately, with a new year comes new cybersecurity concerns. The nefarious efforts of hackers and other cybercriminals who want to get their hands on sensitive information or cause destruction are never going to stop. In fact, with each passing year, these criminals have new, evolving tools at their disposal. CNBC recently ran an insightful article that explored what industry experts believe to be the emerging threats in the world of cybersecurity — some of them potentially becoming big problems to businesses in 2020 already. Here are a few things that they found.Deepfakes aren’t going to be quite as funny anymore
Maybe you’ve already seen what is called a “deepfake” online. Generally, they’ve been used for the amusement of a viewer. A deepfake is when a user creates an incredibly realistic looking, yet conjured, image or video. If you look online, there are a bunch of celebrity deepfakes that have been created for entertainment purposes.
However, this is a technology that experts believe will be used for hacking and other cybercrimes. Deepfakes can be incredibly hard to identify, making them an effective tool in the world of social engineering.
The CNBC article also discussed the possibility of criminals creating a compromising deep fake of a business executive and using it for extortion. Deep fake videos and photos will also be highly effective in spreading disinformation.
Hackers will lean more heavily on AI
Artificial intelligence is another evolution in technology that has become a lot more advanced over time. Industry experts that were interviewed by CNBC highlighted how hackers and cyber criminals now have the tools and capabilities to develop a malicious AI machine that will then be able to carry out a completely automated attack on a network or other target.
Not only does this mean that a hacker can work on attacking a single target around the clock, but they can create entire armies that are attacking multiple targets simultaneously.
Other trends to watch —and prepare for — in 2020
Some of the other trends and threats identified by the CNBC article included:
- The continued adoption of 5G mobile internet will give cyber criminals the ability to transfer large amounts of information quicker.
- Attacks on critical infrastructure are shaping up to increase. These facilities and services (i.e. water and power distribution) are essential to cities and municipalities and are often armed with obsolete cyber security measures, making them surprisingly soft targets
- Cyber criminals will continue to target third-party vendors as a way of breaking into larger companies. Smaller vendors often have a lesser cyber security infrastructure in place, making them easier to breach.
It’s more important now than ever to protect your company’s network and information. Here’s to a happy, breach-free 2020!