EDITOR’S COMMENT
Ashraf Sheet, Regional Director, Middle East and Africa
at Infoblox, echoes some of the risks channel operators
are discussing in the current state of security. He
touches on security risks posed by the use of AI, cloud,
GDPR, identity theft, cryptojacking and IoT.
G
artner has predicted that cybercrime will cost the world US$6
trillion by 2021, meaning that corporations are increasing
spend on security services each year.
Understanding the latest cybersecurity trends will give the
channel the edge to remain one step ahead in the following areas:
Attacks powered by AI
Sh
ee
For a long time, attackers have used evasive techniques to bypass
security measures and avoid detection. Recently, however, an entire
underground economy consisting of products, tools and dedicated
services has emerged to assist attackers. It is predicted that evasion
techniques will become more agile due to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in
2019. It is also projected that criminals
will be able to implement AI in
their malicious software to
automate target selection
and check infected devices
before deploying next
stage malware and anti-
detection technologies.
t, R
eg i
ona
l Dire
Data exfiltration
attacks to target the
cloud
In recent years, enterprises
In
at
have widely moved their data to
ica
r
f
A
nd
a
t
s
the
cloud using Infrastructure and
ctor, Middle Ea
Platform-as-a-Service cloud models. With
a significant amount of corporate data in the cloud, attacks on cloud
platforms are bound to increase.
Cryptojacking will continue to appear in the headlines
Cryptojacking is a way for cybercriminals to take over the computing
devices and smartphones to take advantage of the CPU power to
mine cryptocurrency.
Cybercriminals infect victims’ phones and smartphones
with malware, which uses the CPU power of the device to mine
cryptocurrency, with the attacker receiving the profit.
GDPR
Nok Nok Labs’ CEO, Phil Dunkelberger, said: “The global regulatory
environment will become more challenging as regulators and
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS
INTELLIGENT
TECH CHANNELS
Issue 24
EXPERT DISCUSSES
SECURITY TRENDS
WHICH COME
AS A RESULT
OF MODERN
TECHNOLOGICAL
DEVELOPMENT
ASHRAF SHEET, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA AT INFOBLOX
governments worldwide continue to strive to implement better data
privacy protection as was done with GDPR.”
Rapid rise of identity theft
Identity thefts are skyrocketing and criminals are using more
sophisticated techniques to grab information about new accounts.
Criminals are using SSNs, home addresses and knowledge-based
authentication question answers to hopscotch from one kind of account
to another. Hackers are working hard to break into cellphone accounts,
which will allow them to defeat the two-factor implementation.
Synergistic threats will multiply, requiring
combined responses
Last year saw the rise in ransomware attacks and cryptojacking,
which provides lower risk and better ROI. Fileless and ‘living off the
land’ threats are more slippery and evasive than ever. It is expected
that attackers will combine these tactics to create multifaceted,
synergistic threats.
IoT security and attack on voice-controlled devices
It is expected that we will have 75 billion devices connected to the
Internet of Things (IoT) by 2025 which means a huge number of devices
to secure and new threats to identify. If attackers gain control of IoT
devices, they can create havoc on individuals and organisations. To
prevent this, IoT security solutions are automating the detection process.
Voice-controlled assistants will be used to manage IoT devices
within the home. With the adoption of voice-controlled devices
increasing, cybercriminals’ interest in attacking voice assistant
devices and IoT devices connected to them will continue to grow.
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