Emerging Technology Threats

The technology landscape around how you develop and manage an IT security methodology is continuously changing. There are new threats that are emerging daily, and like your business, you have a strategy to secure your business because the business of hacking and black-market data is growing, and they have a strategy to get to your systems and data, so you need a counterstrategy to protect yourself. The back and forth around how you secure your systems and data verse how do hackers infiltrate your systems to get to your data is not going to stop anytime soon; there is too much money in it to stop. As part of your strategy, you should always be keeping an eye on new emerging threats, so you can budget and implement countermeasures to secure your system as much as possible.

According to ZDNet, there have been several high-profile attacks over the last couple of years that continue to show how the security of networks, websites, and data is still and increasing in value and occurrence. According to ZDNet, there were over 4,000 websites that were Cryptojacked, including the UK Government, the United States Government, and the Australian Services, all due to a vulnerable third-party plugin. Under Armor’s mobile app was hacked resulting in the compromise of 150 million accounts including email addresses and usernames, but no financial data was compromised. Teensafes mobile app was compromised leaking parents' email addresses, child Apple IDs, device names and device identifiers. According to Cybersecurity Magazine, in the first six months of 2019, there was a 52% increase in data breaches across just about every business sector.

What is going to be some of the contributors to new and emerging technology threats?  Starting with 5G technology, due to the high availability of bandwidth and the increase in the use of mobile devices and mobile apps will allow for an increase in the number of attacks resulting in more powerful and damaging attacks.  5G technologies also are going to create a shift in the software market, and business processes and interactions will become software-dependent increasingly, and as that happens, the vulnerabilities that are inherent to software will force us to rethink our security processes. Another contributing factor is going to be the use of Artificial Intelligence or machine learning; both of these are poised to make huge advances in 2020; however, that will come in many small steps which could result in security vulnerabilities.

Cloud Jacking is considered an emerging threat primarily due to the consumer assumption that by moving to the cloud, it was more secure than having systems in-house. However, that is a misconception because all the cloud is, is a placeholder for the data, which doesn’t mean secure. There are a lot of advantages to the cloud if you keep your expectations and responsibilities in check with the service that you are purchasing. Part of those responsibilities is to ensure that you have a backup of your data or that the vendor of choice is backing up your data, don’t assume that it is automatically part of the service you have purchased. Cloud jacking is very similar to other crypto crimes, and these viruses or crypto are executed in about the same manner. One methodology would be getting some help from users, execute a virus or malware which allows a pathway to cloud-based data. Compromising websites which then can be used for brute force attacks, or use scripting to exploit vulnerabilities in the underlying code. In most cases, cloud providers are going to spend more on security than most companies are willing to, but I always recommend that you reinforce security with good employee training and building a culture of security awareness.

The Internet of things, and right now you might be asking yourself what is the Internet of Things or IoT?  It is a network of Interconnected things or devices that are all interconnected and on the Internet that collect and exchange data. Some easy examples would be Alexa, Google Home devices, your new refrigerator that is on the internet, smart lights in your home, and the list goes on. These devices are finding their way into the business arena, and they will create a whole new need and security problem for corporations. As the Internet of Things grows and expands and finds its way into the corporate world either because the company is taking advantage of the Internet of Things or because your employees are taking advantage of it and bringing their home apps and access to your business, you must start thinking about security. According to Norton here are a few things to think about and building a culture of security.

• Make sure that you have anti-virus and ransom protection on your smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.
• Make sure that privacy settings are on, and up to the highest levels, these devices collect a lot of personal data and you need to be aware of what data they are collecting and where it is stored.
• Be aware of the App you load on your phone, know what it is going to access and why and what it is going to do with the data.
• Utilize a VPN to help secure the transmission of the data over the Internet
• Never leave a Smartphone or mobile device unattended in a public place and do not connect to public WIFI use your cellular connection.
• Turn off WIFI when you are in public and don’t allow for connections to your smart devices.