Derek Manky , Chief Security Strategist & Global VP Threat Intelligence , FortiGuard Labs
While threat actors continue to rely on many ‘ classic ’ tactics that have existed for decades , our threat predictions for the coming year largely focus on cybercriminals embracing bigger , bolder , and – from their perspectives – better attacks . From Cybercrime-as-a-Service ( CaaS ) groups becoming more specialised to adversaries using sophisticated playbooks that combine both digital and physical threats , cybercriminals are upping the ante to execute more targeted and harmful attacks .
Although cloud isn ’ t new , it ’ s increasingly piquing the interest of cybercriminals .
While it may seem straightforward to anticipate the security threats of the coming year , these risks have been simmering for some time – and they ’ re not going away . Leading global security experts share their insights on where organisations should focus their efforts , but caution to stay vigilant and avoid tunnel vision . After all , the threats not on your radar are already brewing and could arise when least expected .
• More attack chain expertise emerges : Cybercriminals have been spending more time ‘ left of boom ’ on the reconnaissance and weaponisation phases of the cyber kill chain . As a result , threat actors can carry out targeted attacks quickly and more precisely . We ’ ve observed many CaaS providers serving as jacks of all trades – offering buyers everything needed to execute an attack , from phishing kits to payloads . However , we expect that CaaS groups will increasingly embrace specialisation , with many groups focusing on providing offerings that home in on just one segment of the attack chain
• It ’ s cloud ( y ) with a chance of cyberattacks : While targets like Edge devices will continue to capture the attention of threat actors , there ’ s another part of the attack surface that defenders must pay close attention to over the next few years : their cloud environments . Although cloud isn ’ t new , it ’ s increasingly piquing the interest of cybercriminals . Given that most organisations rely on multiple cloud providers , it ’ s not surprising that we ’ re observing more cloud-specific vulnerabilities being leveraged by attackers , anticipating that this trend will grow in the future
• Automated hacking tools make their way to the Dark Web marketplace : A seemingly endless number of attack vectors and associated code are now available through the CaaS market , such as phishing kits , Ransomware-as-a-Service , DDoS-as-a-Service and more . While we ’ re already seeing some cybercrime groups rely on AI to power CaaS offerings , we expect this trend to flourish . We anticipate that attackers will use the automated
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