As 2017 comes to a close, Cymulate — a company that offers a breach and attack simulation platform — published its report "Recapping 2017's Biggest Cyber Trends and Predictions for 2018."
In a big year for cybercriminals, 2017 saw not only an increase in the number of attacks but also multi-vector techniques that used social engineering and ransomware to monetize. In fact, this past year, over 2 billion data records were compromised. Some notable hacks include the Equifax data breach that exposed the personal information of 14.5 million Americans; the National Health Service, which exposed 26 million patients' records; and pharmaceutical giant Merck, which attributed $600 million in losses to the NotPetya malware attacks.
Here are eight cybersecurity predictions for 2018, according to the Cymulate report provided to Becker's Hospital Review.
1. More leaks — like the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers — should be expected, with accounting and law firms becoming prime targets since the information they hold is highly sensitive and of high value to cybercriminals.
2. Hacking groups, like Shadow Brokers will continue to exploit stolen National Security Agency tools to their benefit.
3. The use of drive-by and watering hole attacks as ways to deliver and distribute ransomware and other malware via unsecured internet browsing will increase.
4. Social engineering of employees via phishing and whaling attacks will remain widespread.
5. The ransomware Cerber family — which includes Magnitude — will remain the market leader due to its ability to evade detection by cybersecurity tools.
6. Based on their global success with WannaCry, NotPetya and Bad Rabbit, attackers will likely launch more attacks of these kinds in 2018, and the scope and damage are expected to increase.
7. Countries such as Iran will become more active in cyberattacks against their enemies and North Korea.
8. The threat of cyberattacks on electric distribution grids and the infrastructure of utilities will increase as well, since cyberattacks on critical infrastructure can remotely harm an entire nation.
To recap cybersecurity trends from 2017, click here.
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