Vital to be aware of cybersecurity to improve digital landscape
KUCHING: With Malaysia’s emphasis to continue growing and developing the Digital Economy, there needs to be an increased awareness on cybersecurity to improve Malaysia’s digital threat landscape.
Cybersecurity solutions expert and developer of Norton cybersecurity products, Symantec, highlighted this recently, in its cyber threats predictions for 2017 report.
“Businesses and consumers need to educate themselves about security risks and best online practices. Given the consistently changing security landscape, it’s important to take a moment and determine where the security industry needs to focus their attention as we move into the next year,” it said.
As the year draws to a close, the security experts at Symantec have taken a close look at the trends to expect to see in 2017.
According to Symantec, 2017 is set to be a new era for cybercrime as events such as rogue nation states possibly equipping themselves with new knowledge of stealing money online, increased fileless malwares, usage of drones for espionage and other despicable acts, and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) abuse are set to plague the digital and physical landscape.
It also highlighted that the internet of things (IoT) devices offer new revenue streams for cybercriminals.
“As cars start to have connected capabilities, it is only a matter of time until we see an automobile hack on a large scale.
“This could include cars being held for ransom, self-driving cars being hacked to obtain their location for hijacking, unauthorised surveillance and intelligence gathering, or other automobile-focused threats.
“This will also lead to a question of liability between the software vendor and automobile manufacturer, which will have long-term implications on the future of connected cars,” it pointed out.
Symantec also noted that IoT devices in the enterprise will increase points of exposure.
“Beyond looking simply at computers and mobile devices for vulnerabilities, incident response teams will need to consider thermostats and other connected devices as jumping points into the network.
“Similar to how printer servers were used for attacks several
Businesses and consumers need to educate themselves about security risks and best online practices. Given the consistently changing security landscape, it’s important to take a moment and determine where the security industry needs to focus their attention as we move into the next year. Symantec
years ago, nearly everything in an enterprise is now connected to the internet and will need to be protected,” it explained.
The increased usage of IoT devices also leaves its users vunerable to DDoS attacks. It noted that the Dyn attack in October demonstrated the vast number of IoT devices that don’t have security on them and are tremendously vulnerable to attacks.
“As more IoT devices are installed in the mass market, the risk of security breach will increase. Once insecure devices are in the market, it becomes almost impossible to fix the issue without recalling them or issuing security updates. Given that this lack of security will continue for the foreseeable future, the number of IoT attacks will only increase as well,” it pointed out.
Aside from that, Symantec also highlighted that the cloud system remains vulnerable to cyber or hacking attacks.
“Given the significant shift towards cloud-based storage and services, the cloud is becoming a very lucrative target for attacks. The cloud is not always automatically protected by firewalls or more traditional security measures, so there will be a shift in where enterprises need to defend their data.
“Cloud attacks could result in multi-million dollar damages and loss of critical data, so the need to defend it will become even more crucial,” it added.
In 2017, machine learning and AI would only continue to grow – as Forrester predicted investment in Artificial Intelligence will grow 300 per cent next year alone.
“With this growth comes new, powerful insights for businesses to tap, and an increased collaboration between humans and machines.
“From a security standpoint, this expansion will impact organisations in more ways than one – including endpoints and mechanisms in the cloud.
As new forms of machine learning and AI continue to enter the market, enterprises will need to invest in solutions that have the capabilities to collect and analyze data from the countless endpoints and attack sensors across different organisations, industries and geographies.
“These solutions will prove to be instrumental in teaching machines how to operate on the front lines of a global battle that changes every day, minute by minute,” Symantec said.