As a new year dawns, we are doing our best to predict what cyber risks lie ahead. While we don’t have a crystal ball (wouldn’t that make life a lot easier?!), we do have some statistical data to help us better serve you. Here’s what we have summarized thus far:
Geopolitics will play an instrumental role.
Ukrainian targets have been attacked six times with wiper malware already this year. According to a Forbes Report, more non-government businesses may become targets of state-sponsored attacks.
State-sponsored attacks (SSA) are carried out by cyber criminals directly linked to a nation-state, such as France, Egypt, Germany, and Japan to name a few. Their goals are threefold: Identify and exploit national infrastructure vulnerabilities; gather intelligence; and exploit systems and people for money.
According to Asaf Kochan, Co-Founder of Sentra, “… 2023 enters during a period of tremendous global tension and economic uncertainty. If the past few years have been defined by ransomware attacks from organized hacking groups, we are now entering an era in which an increasing number of threats will come from state-sponsored actors seeking to disarm global economies. This poses a direct threat to specific sectors, including energy, shipping, financial services, and chip manufacturing. These attacks won’t stop at stealing IP or asking for ransom. Instead, they will focus on proper disruption — compromising or shutting down critical operations on a national scale.”
But… don’t let that fool you. Ransomware will continue to be an issue.
As attacks appeared to peak in 2022, the trend, unfortunately, is likely to continue. It is anticipated that these attacks will evolve into more of a focus on corrupting data rather than encrypting it.
What does this mean for your business? If you are not sufficiently backing up your data, you will be faced with either paying the ransom or losing all your data. There won’t be an opportunity to unencrypt it. It will simply be destroyed. This makes prioritizing offsite backup a critical factor in the coming new year.
One last subject we want to touch on is the threat of botnets. With all the looming threats, Botnots remain a critical risk for small-medium-sized businesses.
Botnets, also known as robot networks, target a network of private computers (think of the network at your office), and infect them with malicious software. Without any knowledge from you or your staff, your network is taken over by bot/s who begin sending emails, stealing data, and worse, all while impersonating your business. Forbes predicts we will see an increase in bot activity in the coming months.
These are just THREE of the looming threats we see on the horizon. No business is immune – all it takes is one click to jeopardize everything you have worked so hard to build. We urge you not to take unnecessary risks with your data. Even in these times of economic uncertainty and budget cuts, eliminating or foregoing cybersecurity will leave you and your data vulnerable – potentially costing you more in the event of an attack. Let the experts at Networks Plus partner with you to find a solution that not only fits your budget, but that will protect you in the coming months!