Security company McAfee has released a report with its predictions for cyber threats in 2020. The report outlines changing trends in cybercrime , technology , and legislation . Researchers predict that cybercriminals will launch even more sophisticated attacks as they seek to stay one step ahead of security practices and programs.
“Continued advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have led to invaluable technological benefits, but that means cybercriminals are also exploiting them,” said McAfee security researcher Raj Samani.
For example, AI technology can be used to create deepfake videos that can mislead the public. What's more worrying, however, is that thanks to this technology, even hackers who are not particularly experienced can create deepfakes.
In addition to using the above advanced forms of technology, hackers will carry out even more attacks on corporate networks to steal information. According to McAfee's predictions, many attacks .
As more businesses turn to cloud services, the need for cloud security is greater than ever.
What are McAfee's key threat predictions for 2020?
More opportunities for less skilled hackers: As we mentioned above, hackers can leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to create fake videos that show people saying things they never actually said. This means that what the viewer sees is not true. Attackers are now able to create very convincing videos and target specific groups of people.
Bypassing facial recognition using deepfakes: Researchers believe that the development of the technology and the increased creation of deepfakes will also be used by companies that are rivals to each other. Hackers can use deepfakes to bypass recognition . Businesses need to understand the risks associated with facial recognition technology and other biometric systems. They should also invest in training to recognize the risks.
Ransomware attacks will occur in two stages: McAfee researchers predict that in 2020, attacks ransomware on corporate networks will occur in two stages. In the first stage, hackers will distribute ransomware to the system and demand a ransom to give back the victims' encrypted files. In the second stage, hackers will re-target the same victims (who have paid and got their files back) and blackmail them into revealing sensitive data that they had stolen before the ransomware attack.
Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) will be the weakest point that will put the cloud at risk: Vulnerabilities will continue to allow unauthorized access, leakage , etc.
