5 cybersecurity predictions for 2017 (and beyond)

Photo credit: Kati.

The Asian cybersecurity landscape has not improved. In the past year, we’ve seen Singapore’s first recent major broadband outage caused by distributed denial of service (DDoS) to telecommunications provider, Starhub. Likewise in Hong Kong, unauthorized stock trading activities by cybercriminals targeted at least 22 online bank accounts across four banks and resulted in financial losses of over US$200,000.

There’s no reason to believe 2017 will be any better. As cybercriminals constantly find new ways to make systems vulnerable, we must guard against cyberattacks and effectively avoid unnecessary financial losses.

Here are some predictions:

1. The silent attack on information—loss of trust

The integrity of information will be one of the biggest challenges global consumers, businesses, and governments will face in 2017. Information from venerated sources in the past will no longer be trustworthy. Cyberattacks won’t be focused on a specific company; there will be attacks on the society, designed to disrupt trust itself.

We’ve seen information used as a weapon and propaganda tool in the 2016 US election cycle, but this will move to the next stage where information can no longer be trusted. Attackers aren’t just accessing information; they’re controlling the means to change information where it resides, and manipulating it to help accomplish their goals.

For example, consider how the emergence of tools that allow for greater manipulation of previously unquestioned content, like audio and video files, could lead to increased extortion attempts using information that may not be real, or grossly out of context. It will be easier than ever to piece together real information stolen in a breach with fabricated information to create an imbalance that will make it increasingly difficult for people to determine what’s real and what’s not.

2. Cloudy with a chance of cyberattacks

Cloud infrastructures and the proliferation of cloud-based services have proven to be game-changers for businesses. But the benefits of the cloud have not gone unnoticed by the dark side either.

Much like how cyberattackers take advantage of the power and insecurity of IoT (internet of things) devices to launch massive DDoS attacks on unthinkable scales, attackers will increasingly use the cloud to ramp up production of security attack tools.

With the addition of available computing power and agile development capabilities of the cloud, we’ll see new offensive tools that are exponentially stronger than previous iterations. We’ll see attacks that are stronger and more devastating, and ultimately, because attacks are raining from the cloud, attribution will become nearly impossible. This will also increase the agility of attackers, a strategic advantage that they currently hold over organizations.

3. Self-learning cyberattacks

The previous year was marked by tremendous progress in the field of artificial intelligence and subsets of the technology such as machine learning, machine intelligence, deep learning, and more. In the field of cybersecurity, hundreds of companies are working to incorporate AI and machine learning into their technologies to predict, prevent, and defeat the next major cyberattack.

As we’ve seen with other technologies and as AI becomes commodified, we can expect cyberattackers to take advantage of AI in a similar way as businesses. Much like how 2016 saw the first massive IoT-driven botnet unleashed on the internet, 2017 will be characterized by the first AI-driven cyberattack.

These attacks will be characterized by their ability to learn and get better as they evolve. Think about “spray and pay” ransomware attacks that are getting smarter: They are more selective about which information to hostage and know how much to charge the victim in exchange of the information. This will make an “advanced attack” commonplace and drive a huge economic spike for hackers. Attacks that are typically reserved for states and criminal syndicates will now be prevalent on a greater scale.

4. Data privacy and pricing structures

The efforts on consumer data conditioning are almost complete. Consumers know that private information is a commodity they can trade for better service. We’re beginning to see this in the insurance market, where consumers are giving away information on their driving habits, location, destinations, and other personal details to get better rates.

5. The agile enemy–hacker collaboration