Cyber Security Trends - Need to be aware in 2021

By Himanshi Sharma

Every day industries decide to innovate their business strategies with digital solutions; ultimately digital revolution has made it essential for businesses of all sizes to be depended on automated solutions to manage their day-to-day activities, resulting in entrepreneurs are taking their initiative and making Cyber Security a primary objective to prevent their confidential information and data from Cyber attackers.

The number of Cybercriminals are rapidly rising and making the case of Cyber Security as an absolute requirement for each size or kind of companies, institutions, and government corporations.

Let's discuss some rising trends that companies should be aware of in 2021!

1.Phishing Attacks

A type of social engineering attack that has the potential to steal user data, including login credential details, and credit card numbers. This happens when the recipient is tricked into clicking a malicious link, leading to the installation of malware, or revealing the sensitive information.

Once an organization struggles with such an attack can sustain severe financial losses with the decline in market share, reputation, and customer trust.

Listed below are some of the Phishing techniques on Cyber Security:

Email Phishing Scams: We're talking about a number game, an attacker sends thousands of fraudulent messages to increase the success rate. Terrorists usually try to push users into action by creating a sense of urgency.
Spear Phishing: In this technique, attackers target a specific person or enterprise; it's the depth version that requires special knowledge of the industry. It's a useful technique for executing the first stage of an APT.

How to prevent from Phishing Attack

Protection is required from both the hands (users and enterprises). Several measures can be taken to mitigate both email and spear-phishing attacks, let's dive into it!

1. Two Factor Authentication: It's the most effective methodology as it adds an extra verification layer when logging in sensitive applications.
2. Organizations should enforce strict password management policies. Note that passwords should get changed frequently and disable the allowance to reuse the password for multiple apps.
3. Awareness training sessions can assist by ensuring safe practices such as not clicking on external links.

2. Ransomware Attacks

This type of malware attack in which the attacker locks and encrypts the victim's data and with high demand unlocks and decrypts it. There are several examples of strains of ransomware malware, such as:

Wannacry: It exploits a vulnerability in the window SMB protocol, it's packaged as a dropper, a self-contained program that extracts the encryption/decryption files, it's rapidly spread across 150 countries affecting 2,31,000 computers.
Cerber: It's ransomware-as-a-service, and is accessible to cybercriminals, that carry out attacks and spread their loot with the malware developer.

How does Ransomware attack work? Let's discuss the Ransomware seven-stage episode:

1. Infection - It's covertly downloaded and installed on the device.
2. Execution - Some attacks delete or encrypt the data as well.
3. Encryption - It's a key exchange with the command and control server; it also locks access to the data.
4. User Notification - It adds instruction files detailing the pay-for-decryption data procedure.
5. Clean-up - It usually terminates and deletes itself.
6. Payment - This procedure is done with the phishing technique while linking the duplicate web page with the original site.
7. Decryption - After the victim pays the ransom via Bitcoin address, the victim receives the decryption key.

3. Insider Threats

An insider threat is a security risk that originates within the targeted organization. They don't have to be current employees; they can be former employees, contractors, or partners who can access the company's data and information. Detecting these threats is not an easy task; research predicts that an insider threat's average cost was $8.77 million. In contrast, the average cost of a data breach over the same period was $3.85 million.

Let's discuss some types of Insider Threats:

1. Pawn: These are the employees who are manipulated into performing malicious activities, through spear phishing or social engineering.
2. Goof: These are arrogant or ignorant users who believe they are exempt from security policies, either out of convenience or incompetence.
3. Collaborator: These are the users who cooperate with the third party to use their access in a way that intentionally causes harm .
4. Lone Wolf: It's entirely independent and acts maliciously without external influence or manipulation.

Conclusion

In the future, it's clear that several factors are converging to increase cyber risks, the combination of an expanding talent gap and rapid growth of cybercrime are trends that will continue for the future time.

The 2021 year will be an exciting year from Cyber Security's standpoint, as the mass devices get smarter entering daily lives.

These trends will help you to prevent yourself from Cyber Threats during an ongoing pandemic.