Given the events in 2017, we think it’s fair to say that data breaches will become more of a regular occurrence next year. With hackers coming up with smarter ways to get around digital defenses, your IT team has its work cut out for them in 2018!
While it’s nearly impossible for anyone to single out the next big threat, we can, however, look at the current state of things to better prepare ourselves for the future. Here are the three things we at CloudBacko predict will happen over the course of the year.
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Ransomware will continue to rise
Ransomware made all the headlines in 2017 as far as data breaches were concerned. The aptly named WannaCry ransomware affected nearly 300,000 computers in 150 nations this year! What made this attack so despicable was the fact that even hospitals weren’t exempt from the damage as Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) fell victim to the tricky ransomware!
With more and more evidence hinting that WannaCry was sponsored by North Korea, we believe that this ransomware will continue to rise in the near future. Furthermore, we also believe that state-sponsored attacks will become more common next years, which further complicates things for your IT teams!
The fact that even national services are susceptible to such wide-scale attacks means that we aren’t as safe as we’re told! Therefore, public and private organizations should beef up their cyberspace defenses in 2018, and buckle up for a bumpy ride!
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Attacks via compromised IoT devices will get worse
Internet of Things (IoT) devices were all the rage last years. For those of you who don’t know, the internet of things is the interconnection of everyday objects like appliances and switches via the internet. IoT devices promise to make our lifestyles simpler by enabling them to simultaneously send and receive data, which makes automation much simpler and effective!
While IoT devices certainly make our lives much easier, they’re not without their drawbacks. The biggest issue with using these devices is the fact that they do a poor job of preventing unauthorized access, i.e. anyone who wants to access them, technically, can access them!
There are many botnet kits available on the dark web that allows unauthorized personnel to access your IoT devices. For example, the Reaper botnet alone has compromised more than a million devices in 2017!
What makes this domain such a Pandora’s box is the fact that we don’t know much about the extent of risk associated with IoT devices! Will hackers be content with messing with these devices whenever they please, or will they be used to launch severe DDoS attacks? We look set to find out in 2018!
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Cloud security problems will rise
We are in the era of change where business data is migrating from local on-premises storage and applications to cloud platforms. Organizations are now moving full speed ahead with cloud computing, deploying cloud-based technologies such as VMs, containers, and serverless applications across Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud platforms.
While businesses reap benefits of cloud computing such as mobility and cost reduction, this change also brings security issues as it is happening at a pace that security teams simply cannot keep up with. If organizations are not setting up the proper data security policies and controls for the cloud, they could face a lot of easily exploitable vulnerabilities, data breaches, and regulatory compliance violations.
To address this risk, organizations have to up their game in 2018, protect their critical cloud data with security measures and backup solutions. If your online presence is plagued with ransomware and malware, we at CloudBacko would love to help! Specializing in Office 365 backup, cloud to local backup, VMware backup, Hyper-V backup etc you can significantly enhance your data security by opting for our services.
Contact us to ensure that your organization is never caught unprepared!