Trend Micro predicts that retail and financial institutions outside the U.S will be the chief targets of cybercriminals in 2015.
Highlights from the 2015 predications report titled “Trend Micro Security Predictions for 2015 and Beyond: The Invisible Becomes Visible” include:
- More cybercriminals will turn to darknets and exclusive-access forums to share and sell crimeware.
- Increased cyber activity will translate to better, bigger, and more successful hacking tools and attempts.
- Exploits kits will target Android, as mobile vulnerabilities play a bigger role in device infection.
- Targeted attacks will become as prevalent as cybercrime.
- New mobile payment methods will introduce new threats.
- We will see more attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in open source apps.
- Technological diversity will save Internet of Everything devices from mass attacks but the same won’t be true for the data they process.
- More severe online banking and other financially motivated threats will surface.
According to the report, targeted attacks campaigns will continue to multiply in 2015, after cybercriminals had noteworthy breaches via targeted attacks in the U.S. and China.
Trend Micro also predicts that hackers within countries such as Vietnam, UK, and India, will pursue the use of targeted attacks. Attacks against non-traditional countries like Malaysia and Indonesia will also rise.
“What we are seeing today is not a huge surprise but rather the velocity and brutal measures cybercriminals are using to steal information,” said, Dhanya Thakkar, managing director, India & SEA, Trend Micro. “Following the success of targeted attacks from Chinese and Russian cybercriminals, many hackers from other countries will regard cyber-attacks as a more practical method to grab a foothold in an organization.”
Additionally data breaches will also be essentially regarded as a common offshoot of the present threat landscape, Thakkar added.
Threats around banking will continue to become more severe as more unique cybercrime attacks against financial institutions also emerge and financial and banking intuitions must implement two-factor authentication for online services.
Trend Micro also sees threat actors trying to manipulate Near Field Communications (NFC) as certain platforms gain momentum due to their significant following and user’s penchant for adopting the latest and greatest technology.
There will be continued increase in the exploitation of smart devices such as smart cameras, appliances and TV’s as cybercriminals become more aggressive at targeting these platforms as well as the organizations who manage the data.
As factors like market pressure push device manufacturers to launch more and more smart devices sans security in mind to meet the rising demand, so will attackers increasingly find vulnerabilities to exploit for their own gain.
Smart homes and home automation systems are other emerging areas of threats. Smart device manufactures must consider how to secure the data that resides in these devices not just the devices themselves, the report said.
Rajani Baburajan
