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Top 5 cybersecurity threats that every user should know

Here is a list of some of cybersecurity threats that every user should know in order to stay informed and protected from unexpected cyberattacks-

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CIOL Bureau
New Update
cybersecurity threats

Rapidly growing technology is making people much smarter than before- including cybercriminals too. By 2024, the global cybersecurity market is expected to grow from $127 billion in 2017 to $300 billion. With new innovations being made to tackle cybersecurity threats, attackers are also coming up with new and innovative ideas to carry out cyberattacks.

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Here is a list of some of the cybersecurity threats that every user should know in order to stay informed and protected from unexpected cyberattacks-

• Usage of AI tools to hack AI defence technology

Most of the organization- be it government or private- are switching to AI technology to store important information and data and to ensure the smooth functioning of their systems. But, this AI defence technology is turning into the biggest cybersecurity threat. Criminals are creating attacks using AI tools to fight the AI defence.

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They make use of phishing emails that hold the capacity of bypassing the spam filters and other gateway solutions and landing up straight into the end user’s mailboxes. According to a report, nearly 62% of businesses experienced phishing attacks in 2018.

In order to mark malicious threats safe, hackers can also inject malicious code and modifying labels into the datasets used to train AI models. Apart from these, they can also make use of “deepfake” video and audio and AI-based countermodels to fool the users.

• Cloud-based services being used to carry out attacks

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Well-known cloud-based services such as Dropbox, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, Asus Cloud, Google Drive, etc, can be exploited and abused by hackers to fool the users. They use these services as command and control servers and often use cloud computing infrastructure to spread malicious code or distribute macro-laden documents and spreadsheets.

• Advantages of supply-chain attacks

To carry out more extensive attacks, attackers focus on attacking supply-chain infrastructure. They have realised the true potential of supply-chain attacks after the NotPetya campaign of June 2017, whose rapid spread around the globe wiped data of thousands of computers.

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• Data breach through insecure biometric data

According to a report of IBM, the average time to identify a breach in 2019 was 206 days. Many times people do not even realise that their data has been attacked. Biometrics has become a top priority of both government and private institutions (including schools) as well as banks to authenticate people.

Also, according to Forbes, by the year 2020, 83% of enterprise workloads will move to the cloud. At the same time, many cases of data breach have also been recorded throughout the globe recently, such as Marriott-Starwood data breach, leak of Aadhar details, etc. These data can be used by hackers to conduct financial frauds, fake e-commerce transactions or other malicious activities.

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Trishneet Arora, Founder & Chief Executive Officer – TAC Security Trishneet Arora, Founder & Chief Executive Officer – TAC Security

• Blockchains under threat

Blockchains are peer-to-peer, decentralised technology, which allows users to carry out secure transactions protected by encryptions. But, recently developed cyber security threats and attacks make blockchain more critical and insecure. Some of these attacks include privacy poisoning, smart contracts- a new technology full of bugs, public and private key securities, etc.

Apart from these, cryptojacking attacks also continue to grow with a 75% rise in the year 2018 and 2019. In these types of attacks, hackers make use of infected websites, malicious links or online ads with JavaScript code to launch the crypto mining code into the victim’s system in order to use their resources to mine cryptocurrency for the attackers.

At the end, only a proactive approach and knowledge of potential cyber threats can save an institution or an individual from falling into hackers' trap.