Web skimmers move to the server side and extortion plague

Successful businesses use instrumentation to measure, manage and improve their processes, but lacking hard evidence, cyber security has largely been assumption-based. A report says, 53% of Attacks Infiltrate Organizations Undetected. The growing trend shows in 2021, many financial cybercriminals are likely to target Bitcoin more often, while other cybercriminals will switch to transit cryptocurrencies when demanding payment from victims for enhanced privacy. On top of that, extortion practices will become even more widespread, be it as part of DDoS or ransomware attacks, with the operators of the latter consolidating and using advanced exploits to target victims. Covid-19 has proven to be a great catalyst for technology adoption by embracing the strategy for digital transformation. Netizens have been forced to increasingly use technology to conduct business in their everyday lives.

43% in a survey have cited technology and innovation as the most important aspect in making a city an attractive business hub. This goes hand-in-hand with the provision of technology infrastructure, which sets business hubs apart—the availability, reliability and security of technology infrastructure ensures seamless connectivity in times of disruption. A report from Kaspersky says, financial cyberthreats are among the most dangerous as they directly impact the financial wellbeing of victims – be it individuals or organizations. Drastic changes in 2020 unavoidably affected the way financial attackers operate. Albeit not all of the tactics, techniques and procedures have been influenced by the change of how we live and work nowadays, their influence cannot be understated.

This year was substantially different from any other year we have experienced, and yet, many trends that we anticipated to come to life last year came true regardless of this transformation of how we live. These include new strategies in financial cybercrime – from reselling bank access to targeting investment applications — and the further development of already existing trends, for instance, even greater expansion of card skimming and ransomware being used to target banks.

We have seen there are various security companies who are talking about 0-day exploits used by ransomware gangs. On top of that, ransomware groups who managed to accumulate funds as a result of a number of successful attacks in 2020 will start using 0-day exploits – vulnerabilities that have not yet been found by developers – as well as N-days exploits to scale and increase the effectiveness of their attacks. A newer segment that will be the growth engine will the Bitcoin theft to become more attractive as many nations plummet into poverty as a result of the pandemic. With economies crashing down and local currencies dropping, more people may become involved in cybercrime, leading to more cases. As Kaspersky researchers anticipate, due to the weakness of local currencies, more people may focus on fraud that demands Bitcoin, as well as Bitcoin theft.

Going forward, Video surveillance, closed-circuit TV and IP-camera systems became virtually omnipresent and indispensable for many organizations, businesses, and users. The main purpose is to provide physical security, increase safety, and prevent crime. IP home security cameras are Internetconnected security cameras that can be installed in people’s homes and remotely monitored via the web. These cameras are growing in popularity and the global market is expected to reach 1.3 billion dollars by 2023. Attackers are exploiting the Video Surveillance System (VSS) vulnerabilities to blackmail users and companies by DoS attacks, by injecting forged video streams, and by eavesdropping private video data, even without physical access to the systems.

So, beware and stay safe from all the adversaries

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Chief editor, VARINDIA