Top 7 Cybersecurity Predictions for 2021

Working remotely has become the new normal for a number of people around the world! However, this also has a very serious implication. Cybersecurity experts say that it is a hacker’s paradise!

Cyber crimes are on the rise and cybercriminals are developing smarter ways to break the security ceiling.

In fact, in 2021, global cybercrime damage costs will reach $6 trillion USD a year, $500 billion a month, and $115.4 billion a week!

Hence, embracing cybersecurity trends well in advance can help you differentiate themselves from your competitors and gain strategic advantage.

In this blogpost, we take a look at top 7 forecasts for the cybersecurity industry in 2021. Let’s get started!

1. Cybercriminals Can Target Remote Work

Like 2020, this year will also see many organizations continuing with the remote work model in the home office setting. Hence, increasing the need for stricter cybersecurity regulations.

Cybercriminals might try to exploit the under-protected home networks to gain access to corporate data. Moreover, we can also see malware spreading across networks and putting infected devices to corporate use.

2. 5G Technology Will Enable Swarm-Attacks

2021 will witness the rise of 5G-enabled devices. This upgraded speed can be put to use for quickly sharing any sensitive information and creating functional swarm-based attacks.

Cybercriminals can deploy swarm attacks and can target networks/devices and group specific attacks. Swarm technologies can further enable individual swarm bots to efficiently share information. Hence, making it possible for cybercriminals to exploit anything and everything they discover.

3. Trojans Evolve to Target the Edge

With the work from home remote setup, the end users are soft targets for cybercriminals due to reduced security networks.

Corporate network attacks starting from a remote worker’s home network are pretty carefully coordinated so that it doesn’t look suspicious.

In the meantime, the advanced malware will be able to discover valuable data and information using Edge Access Trojans (EATs). This can lead to invasive activities such as intercepting requests off the local network, compromising additional systems. EATs can also be used to inject additional attack commands.

4. Advances in Crypto Mining

With cryptocurrencies gaining popularity over the last decade, cybercriminals have become more active to acquire cryptocurrencies at the cost of benign users. Cybercriminals can scale future attacks with ML and AI capabilities.

Crypto mining is about using the computer’s processing power to solve complex mathematical problems and verify cyber currency transactions. In return, the miners receive a small amount of cyber currency.

To earn more money, cybercriminals can use the crypto mining malware by slipping it into spam emails and in phishing exploits in the form of downloadable PDFs. This is when crypto mining takes an illegal turn. Thus, it is a big opportunity for cybercriminals as the malware can slow down the computer system and stop it from working normally.

5. Tracking Security Gaps in Legacy Endpoints

In 2020, Microsoft ended support of Windows 7 and Server 2008. These versions have a higher probability of facing security flaws. In 2021, attackers might look for such flaws to exploit legacy endpoints that users will be unable to patch at home.

Also, if a significant number of organizations rely on these older operating systems, black hat hackers can take advantage of such a situation. A major Windows 7 vulnerability is expected to surface in 2021 as attackers will continue to target flaws in legacy endpoints.

6. Services Without MFA to Suffer Security Breaches

Cyber criminals have found success by stealing usernames and passwords present on underground forums. Attackers take advantage of user accounts with weak passwords. There is a huge number of usernames and passwords stolen by cybercriminals and many are added to the list everyday.

Since no internet exposed service can be considered safe from cyber intrusion, the databases, which aren’t using multi-factor authentication (MFA) cannot be secure. Services without MFA might face a security breach or an account compromise in the year 2021.

7. The Quantum Computing Threat

Quantum computers are great to the information security sector. These have exponentially high processing power, which can break the public-key encryption standards, threatening digital information.

This is a potential risk for the forthcoming years, though it hasn’t been materialized as yet. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has started devising standardized new post-quantum cryptographic solutions to tackle this threat.

Wrapping Up

Given the current scenario, cybersecurity experts are moving towards modernizing the data security outlook. A proactive cybersecurity approach will benefit your organization and save it from threats. A tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) based approach can go a long way if paired with analytics capabilities to filter any security breach activities.

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