As the cyber attack vectors are ever-evolving, it is becoming increasingly challenging for companies and individuals to protect themselves from the dangers lurking in the digital landscape.
Recent research carried out by security researchers of Check Point has concluded that most companies operating these days are lacking the basic cyber defenses and those which have are only capable of combating with 3rd generation of cyber-attacks while the demand now is for 6th generation.
Now to those who are unaware of the “Generation” difference of cyberattacks, here’s a timeline denoting them-
Gen 1– Started in the 1980s, the Generation 1 Cyber Attacks had hackers spreading the virus to PCs and workstations via Floppy disks. And this led to the invention of signature-based anti-virus solutions- with first being probably from Norton.
Gen 2– In the Mid 90s/ cyber attacks on networks paved way to the next generation of attack evolution which made companies introduce firewalls to secure the perimeters of IT infrastructures from cyber crooks.
Gen 3- This generation of cyber attacks was witnessed at the start of the 20th century where attackers started to focus their exploitation on industrial applications- which paved the way to hackers to see cybercrime as a business. Botnets were being used to send out spam paving way for companies to introduce Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS).
Gen 4- Rise of targeted attacks began in 2010 where governments around the world started to use cyber tools as weapons for mass destruction. And this led to the introduction of Behavioral Analysis solutions.
Gen 5- The year 2016 witnessed the emergence of multi-vector attacks which were mostly state-sponsored and thus had the potential to destruct at a greater note.
Generation 6 cyber attacks– In the evolution timeline of cyber attacks, the Gen 6 attacks happen to be most destructive as hackers are devised with tools to attack everything and anything digital. Also, in the coming days i.e. after the introduction of the 5G network, attacks on IoT might increase at an alarming rate which will pave way for complex security requirements.
“From IP cameras to smart TVs and from smartphones to connected cars, everything will become vulnerable to Gen 6 attacks,” says Itai, Greenberg, VP Product Management at Check Point.
