Emerging cyber threats that are expected to disrupt the year 2021

The ever-increasing use of connected devices, apps and web services in our homes will make us more susceptible to digital home break-ins. This threat is compounded by many individuals continuing to work from home, meaning this threat not only impacts the consumer and their families, but enterprises as well. Attacks on cloud platforms and users will evolve into a highly polarized state where they are either “mechanized and widespread” or sophisticated and precisely handcrafted. The coming year will see cyber defenders having to seek new ways to protect data. Sophisticated state-sponsored cybercriminals will increasingly hire other nation cybercriminals to execute their agenda, the firm said. There will be a blurring of lines between state and non-state threat actors as more players enter the hacking trade. Hackers-for-hire marketplaces have seen a rampant increase in activity, and this will result in more prolific attacks in 2021.

Intellectual property, trade secrets and research data will be of particular interest to hackers. State-sponsored cyber criminals may also look to accelerate corporate espionage in support of their national agenda to create competitive advantages for local businesses. Especially, transactional and user behavioural data will be high on hackers’ target list. Secondly, there is a spike in AI in attacks. Hackers will likely install malicious code to manipulate algorithm behaviour, such as crypto-mining malware that could turn machines into attack systems. Attacks will become more sophisticated with the rise of 5G, NLP, and quantum computing, said researchers.

In 2021, deep fake technology will be more widely used to cause misinformation and corporate espionage. The technology will manipulate perception and trick victims into taking unintended actions, similar to social engineering attacks, but could be much more insidious.

According to a report in 2021, businesses need to refine cybersecurity strategies to include the mitigating risk that comes with the adoption of edge computing. When computing power and data is spread across a wide footprint, digital risk associated with perimeter defense, passwords and authentication, data storage, protection, back-up, and retention will present challenges to cybersecurity teams. Hackers will continue to pilfer intellectual property and public health data by deploying social engineering tactics on people working on Covid-19 related research. During this pandemic, we have seen a spike in the online transactions and e-commerce and the expectations of the consumer behaviour and payment preferences also evolved at an accelerated rate.

This is of paramount importance in a world where resilient commerce through contactless interactions – at scale – is key. As a result, payments processors and issuing banks must ensure they are technology-enabled and software-driven so that the financial products and services they provide are future-proofed, ready for today and tomorrow.

Finally, technology has made our lives easier, but it also has the power to enable lives, especially of the differently abled. Stephen Hawking is a prime example and inspiration of how technology can transform lives. I believe India has a lot of potential to bring innovative assistive technological solutions that helps people with disabilities to live independently. This competition aims to nurture the untapped potential available in our country and this will lead to the rise of “platform economy” ,where the business leaders should be looking hard at in the post-COVID recovery period.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA