Intel Security Group, formerly known as McAfee has predicted that the year 2017 will witness an increase in cyber attacks. As per the McAfee Labs 2017 Threats Prediction report, the most critical developments pulled out up in this arena will be from Cloud Security and Internet of Things (IOT).
McAfee which was acquired by Intel in 2011 suggests that there is bad news for those expecting something innovative when it comes to cyber security. The security software firm expects a rise in cyber crime due to the influx of new malware.
The Santa Clara-based firms predict that nations will indulge in cyber espionage in the name of National Security and so companies operating in the United States should come up with proactive measures to neutralize such attacks.
In order to take control of the situation, companies should first start reading the minds of their adversaries who are posing as a cyber threat and should start to develop countermeasures by understanding the threat landscape to change the defender-attacker dynamics.
Intel Security McAfee labs suggest that organizations should begin with by making cyber attacks more expensive, improve visibility, better identifying exploitation of legitimacy, protect decentralized data in an efficient way and detect and protect agent fewer environments in a pragmatic way.
Intel Security McAfee Labs 2017 Threats Prediction reports suggests the following threat predictions for 2017
- Dronejackings will increase in 2Q of 2017
- Ransomware attacks will increase in first half of 2017
- Mobile attacks such as locking down info and banking apps will a surge by mid-2017
- Malware related to Internet of Things will open backdoors into connected homes that could go untraced for years and can eventually lead to a doomsday
- Fake ads on Google and purchases likes will continue to proliferate and erode trust
- Malware delivery capabilities will improve as hackers will try to mimic the actions of advertisers delivering ads through different channels
- Cyber criminals will start targeting virtualization and infrastructure software to bring corporate networks to a halt.
- Sophisticated attackers will increasingly target hardware and firmware
So, hard times are ahead for businesses operating in the United States. Then what’s the solution?
It is simple-
- Begin by employing encryption techniques on data related to all your operations
- Educate employees about the cyber crimes happening around the world and ask them to induce some smart practices in their day to day communication and data dealings.
- Ensure that you have data backups in place
- Ensure that you have software firewalls and well secure network in place
- Have a business continuity plan such as disaster recovery well in advance
- If possible spread some awareness by organizing some events and fests related to cyber threat and cyber security.
