Cybercrime refers to any type of illegal activity carried out using technology. The techniques hackers will use include phishing, social engineering, and other types of malicious plans that will eventually affect your data. According to Dataconnectors, over 24,000 malicious mobile apps are blocked daily while more than 21% of online files are not protected, turning them into easy targets for cyberattacks.
According to the Official Annual Cybercrime Report, by 2021, the healthcare industry is thought to become four-time more predisposed to these cyber threats, while cybercrime is estimated to cost $6 trillion annually by the same year. These are just some of the predictions worth mentioning here. We’ve conducted a thorough analysis of the considered factors and came up with serious cybercrime predictions for this year. Here are some of the most relevant.
There will be a rise in ransomware cyberattacks
One of the most dangerous and predictable changes is the potential increase in ransomware attacks. It can be quite damaging in the long run. Ransomware is a type of malware that keeps data and threatens to block access to it or trap it. This ransom can get high enough to be destructive for businesses and the economy. “Attacks in 2017 were half the number they are today, so we can see that there is an increase of interest, perspective, focus, and cyber-need for these attacks,” writes essay service coordinator, Jenn Thompson.
According to reports at McAfee Labs, ransomware attacks increased by 118% in the first quarter of the year 2019, which is an unexpected outcome. With all the technology implemented to stop these attacks, they should be ceasing soon, but developers predict that they will, unfortunately, continue to rise. That is because will continue to be one step ahead of the game, releasing new versions of this malware constantly.
Timing matters
As you can figure it out, cyber attackers’ first goal is getting the money. Thus, they will regularly attack during the week, when most money transactions are running. Usually, employees will receive phishing emails during the weekdays and told to open them, according to an inside source at assignment help Australia. Since workers receive hundreds of emails every day, it is quite difficult to tell which one exploits and which one doesn’t, which is exactly what they are expecting. These employees will, therefore, take the bait and open the phishing email, follow through with the next step, and boom! The attackers are in. Watch out for these types of emails and ads, as well as advertisements that promise you something odd. Do not open these types of emails. If you are an employer, make sure you train your employees for such “special” occasions.
Mobile malware attacks
An increase in mobile malware attacks can also be easily predicted. That is because most people and companies have decided to switch to a mobile interface or simply optimize to make it easier for customers to use various platforms. At the beginning of the year, 2019, countries such as Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan have encountered some of the most numerous malware attacks, and more than a third of them were mobile-based. In Iran and Bangladesh, about 31% and 28%of mobile users respectively reported mobile malware that same year. Since 2018, things have only gone south, which is why we should pay more attention to where and how we store our data. It is also important to understand the consequences of disclosing our personal information online and – well – stop doing it.
Promoting cybercrime
The nastiest thing about cybercrime is that, if promoted the right way, it can become an activist movement! Modern activists perceive this as an opportunity to change something for the better and thus turn it into a significant point in history. You will see cyberactivists online, fighting for this or that cause, and protecting their plans. One of their goals is to fight off companies’ and organizations’ operations to get their message across to the people in higher positions. That will eventually also increase awareness of a company’s poor demeanor. This is predicted to continue in the upcoming years; it will eventually affect the economy impactfully.
New technology increases the risk
The new technology such as Artificial Intelligence or AI and IoT will change the way in which cybercriminals act. Unfortunately, these new tech changes will ease up some things for them, gaining them access to databases on a more continuous and non-strict way. Any tool connected to IoT will be at least 20% more at risk of being hacked. These new technologies have not yet found a solution for counterfeiting the attacks, which means further studies must be conducted. According to FinancesOnline, there will be more cybercrimes committed by Artificial Intelligence than actual people by the year 2040. As scary as this is, it can be prevented by avoiding connection to these platforms until a solution is found.
Cardholder data is an important target
As I mentioned previously, cyber attackers want money, so cardholder data is their primary target most of the time. It will, therefore, remain this way for a long time now. Reports show that card fraud skyrocketed in the United States in the last few years. The PCI SSC has imposed stricter rules to protect this type of data. But businesses find themselves in the same defensive position over and over again. There are already a high number of cardholders who have been compromised and continue to be used for various purposes, including transactions on the Dark Web.
Crypto-jacking
One of the most dangerous forms of cyber-attacks is crypto-jacking, which is a malware created to infect cryptocurrency. Most of the attacks today are attacks where the virus infects the system using a malicious code and then, uses CPU to get cryptocurrency. Since cryptocurrency is becoming increasingly popular, it is possible that it will increase the hacking risk of individuals and companies. Crypto-jacking will become a common, regular thing for hackers, according to the same source.
A major concern: targeted attacks
One of the other most relevant concerns is that most of these attacks are targeted. They are usually designed for specific industries and companies and are able to access sensitive, special information. This can, as you can tell, become increasingly dangerous for companies. The number of large attacks grows by no less than 20% each year, as technologies evolve quickly, and personal information becomes easier to access.
Social platforms play a role
Social platforms play an important role in this scheme, as they facilitate access to people’s information. These criminals will, therefore, access chatting platforms and act friendly to get help with essay and reach customer personal information. Since law enforcement has a harder time decrypting messages on apps like WhatsApp, Jaber, or Viber, it will be harder for them to decrypt cybercriminal plans as well. According to the FBI, Skype is one of the most popular platforms on which hackers act and perform.
Conclusion
Now that you are quite familiar with how cybercrime will look like this year. Maybe you are more prone to take the right measures to protect your business or employees. It’s important that you understand the risks before anything else and prevent rather than heal. Stay on top of the work, on top of stats, and good job reading this.
