Cyber-crime trends to challenge enterprise security in 2015

Security is one of the major concerns of the organizations these days. The organizations often face several attacks by different malwares, which pose a serious threat to the valuable data of the organization. As per the report, the numbers of cyber-attacks have increased hugely as compared to the last year and are further set to witness a rise by next year. Every attack damages the reputation of the organization and also gives a blow to its present security solution. Along with the information of right tools the companies also have to aware of the latest threats and the ways to deal with it. If the organization has all the correct knowledge then combating, an attack will become quite easy. Websense, the company that provides protection to the organization from cyber-attacks also feels that information and correct security solution are essential to keep the organization’s valuable and confidential data safe.

Speaking about the same, said Charles Renert, vice president of Websense Security Labs says, “Cybercriminals are continually adapting evasive techniques and methods so they can circumvent the security systems that were specifically put in place to stop them. By thoroughly analyzing recent cybercrime trends and tactics, we have established a common thread across to study and understand the increase in frequency and sophistication of the attacks.”

So, in order to help the organizations and IT firms we bring to you a list of cybercrimes and other threats which will be the most prevalent in the coming year.

Beware malware ahead

1. Healthcare sector at stake

One of the common attacks witnessed in the healthcare sector is of stealing the important data. The healthcare records contain collection of personally identified information that can easily be used for various types of attacks and frauds. In this phase of digitisation records of millions of patients are transitioning from paper to the digital format. Many firms are playing catch-up when it comes to the security challenge of protecting personal data. So, the attacks against this sector are to increase by next year.

2. Internet of Things (IoT) under constant threat

The concept of Internet of Things is gaining momentum of late. The adoption of the IoT phenomenon elevates the connectivity of everyday items that makes them more prone to attacks. All the internet connected devices in the business organisation might face severe attack. The connected devices use new protocols, which present new ways to hide malicious activity and generate more noise that must be accurately filtered to identify true threats. The attacks will try to take over the simply connected devices to move laterally and steal the confidential data of the organisation. These types of attacks will likely to occur more in the industrial environments.

3. Protect your credit cards

With the advancement in the retail sector, their defense and security measures are also being mandated as the cyber criminals are eyeing a lot on the credit card data theft. Along with this, the criminals look for a broader range of data so they can victimise great number of people. These fuller, richer, personal identity profiles of individual users, comprises of multiple credit cards, regional and geographic data, personal information and behaviour. The overdose of information will empower the cyber criminals to cause maximum attacks.

4. The mobile threats

The mobile phones these days have become an important part of our businesses. The cloud storage, internal storage and the other apps hold loads of important business information. The auto-login ability of these apps makes it easy for the hackers to get hold of the valuable credentials stealing. The cyber-attacks targeting the mobile devices uses the mobile phone as an access point to get hold of the cloud-based enterprise applications and data resources. At times, these attacks can turn out to be very fatal for the organisation.

5. The old open source code

The old open source code can also turn out to be disastrous. This year we heard a lot about the malwares like OpenSSL, Heartbleed and Shellshock. All of these existed within the open source code waiting to be exploited. The open source code plays a valuable role in the process of software development and new applications. The new attributes and integrations build on top of that base code; vulnerabilities continue to be overlooked. In the coming year, the attackers will exploit the seemingly divergent application software through vulnerabilities in the old source code that these applications share. That in turn will create more problems for the enterprises and will pose a threat to their valuable data.

6. Safeguard the email

Emails play a very crucial role both on the personal purpose or professional. Many of our important and confidential business communication take place through emails. This newly found attacks which target the emails are highly sophisticated. They come with some great email evasion techniques and are designed to circumvent the latest enterprise-grade defences. Earlier the email attacks were used to lure in the past attack scenarios. However, over period email will become a more pervasive element of other stages of an attack, including the reconnaissance stage. So, make sure that your servers and devices are guarded well be the right security solution.

7. Shield your cloud and social media tools

The enterprises focus a lot on the use of social and collaborative tools. They help them in improving the business and also gaining more traction. But, the cyber criminals are also devising the smarter ways to attack the businesses. They make use of these tools to host their command and control the infrastructure. Those who get attacked are charged with protecting business from attack will have a difficult time discerning malicious traffic from legitimate traffic when communications to Twitter and Google Docs are not only allowed, but also encouraged.

8. New cyber-espionage and cyber-warfare

Of late we have witnessed an increase in the ratio of cyber-espionage and cyber-warfare activities. Many nations have attained success with the techniques and tactics of nation-state cyber-espionage and cyber-warfare activities. Keeping in mind this phenomenon many other countries are looking for the opportunities in developing their cyber-espionage programs, particularly in countries with a high rate of forecasted economic growth. Along with this, the barrier for the entry of cyber activities is minimal as compared traditional espionage so, we believe that these activities will tend to increase by next year.

Conclusion

It becomes very crucial and important for the organisations to protect themselves from the cyber-attacks. Once attacked the organisations face huge losses and the important and valuable data also gets damaged. With these predictions and awareness about the upcoming attacks, the organisation will be able to take essential steps.

Talking about this, Carl Leonard, Websense, principal security analyst, said, “With a new year of threats just on the horizon, these predictions aim to help security teams stay a step ahead of the threats and vulnerabilities anticipated to impact their organizations. Our security teams constantly analyse the landscape to identify the most effective ways to safeguard our customers from the repercussions of tomorrow’s threats.”