When it comes to cyber security, it is critical to stay ahead of the threats, rather than reacting to them. With a digital landscape that is constantly changing and evolving, fixing yesterday’s threats is not going to be enough. We need to be able to look further ahead, and be prepared to stop tomorrow’s cyber attacks. Your IT support services need to consider what changes are coming in 2020.
Ransomware is becoming more sophisticated, and learning to avoid even some of the most vigilant email systems, and with more devastating effect, such as the recent attack on a Minnesota healthcare provider that may have inadvertently exposed patients sensitive health data.
Ransomware now aims to infect whole IT systems, not just a singular PC, hoping to score a large ransom in return for removal of the malicious software. Not only that, but hackers can gain access to large amounts of data and sell it on. There is always the threat of state-backed hackers wanting to track your organisation, as part of a bigger project.
Often enough, it can be all down to a weak password that has remained unchanged for far too long, out of date software patches, and badly configured cloud services. Some of these simple things can stop or at least hinder the crooks who want to extort you. A company wide review to fix such simple errors should be implemented, and regularly.
2020 could start to get much weirder, with the rise of deepfake videos seeming like something out of a sci-fi film. Deepfakes could cost businesses as much as £200m. Videos of your CEO apparently resigning can affect share prices, or even deepfake videos of celebrities being unpleasant about your services or products can damage sales.
It’s another tool for the phishing gangs, with cases already of AI created fake voices of CEOs tricking employees to make money transfers. With the amount of less IT literate workers being fooled by phishing emails, a deep fake video chat with an executive has even more chance of working.
With technology advancing more and developing new devices and applications the rely on internet connectivity, there is now more than just the business computer network to protect. Much of that battle is just identifying the parts of the business that have been connected to the web without it being immediately realised.
The mobile nature of business now, with the expansion of 5G networks especially, means that the connected devices could be being used worldwide, creating a geographical issue for cyber security teams.
File sharing and collaboration services, and even instant messengers can be prone to attack and pose new challenges to protect. While such services promote greater productivity, with each new channel comes new attack vectors to consider. A lot of these services and cloud drives, from trusted companies like Google and Microsoft are usually immediately trusted by users, which is an advantage for the hacker.
Keep your cyber security up to date and ready for 2020 with expert IT services in Doncaster.
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