In its McAfee Labs 2017 Threats Predictions Report, Intel said cloud and IoT security are the most critical developments to watch. The report reflects the informed opinions of 31 Intel Security thought leaders.
2017 Threats Predictions
#Ransomware attacks will decrease in volume and effectiveness in the second half of 2017.
#Windows vulnerability exploits will continue to decline, while those targeting infrastructure software and virtualization software will increase.
#Hardware and firmware will be increasingly targeted by sophisticated attackers.
#Hackers using software running on laptops will attempt “dronejackings” for a variety of criminal or hacktivist purposes.
#Mobile attacks will combine mobile device locks with credential theft, allowing cyber thieves to access such things as banks accounts and credit cards.
#IoT malware will open backdoors into the connected home that could go undetected for years.
#Machine learning will accelerate the proliferation of and increase the sophistication of social engineering attacks.
#Fake ads and purchased “likes” will continue to proliferate and erode trust.
#Ad wars will escalate and new techniques used by advertisers to deliver ads will be copied by attackers to boost malware delivery capabilities.
#Hacktivists will play an important role in exposing privacy issues.
#Leveraging increased cooperation between law enforcement and industry, law enforcement takedown operations will put a dent in cybercrime.
#Threat intelligence sharing will make great developmental strides in 2017.
#Cyber espionage will become as common in the private sector and criminal underworld as it is among nation-states.
#Physical and cybersecurity industry players will collaborate to harden products against digital threats.
“To change the rules of the game between attackers and defenders, we need to neutralize our adversaries’ greatest advantages,” said Vincent Weafer, vice president of Intel Security’s McAfee Labs.
“As a new defensive technique is developed, its effectiveness increases until attackers are compelled to develop countermeasures to evade it.”
To overcome the designs of rivals, he said we need to go beyond understanding the threat landscape to changing the defender-attacker dynamics in six key areas.
Those are: information asymmetry, making attacks more expensive, improving visibility, better identifying exploitation of legitimacy, improving protection for decentralized data, and detecting and protecting in agentless environments.”
The report also shares some recommendations for industries to stay immune against any attacks. Those are:
#Improve threat defense effectiveness
#Improve visibility into cyber events
#better identifying exploitation of legitimacy
#improve protection for decentralized data
#detect and protect in agentless environments
