Cyber Security Magazine
Bitdefender’s cybersecurity specialists estimate that the total number of cyber threats will exceed the threshold of one billion units in 2019, the most aggressive being the booming ransomware. The second-largest increase, almost 50%, records the amount of spam that arrives in users ‘ inboxes.
Compared to the similar period last year, the developers of ransomware-type threats, which encrypt user data and then claim a reward in exchange for their access to play, increased by more than three-quarters of their number.
Targeting large organizations, educational institutions, and critical infrastructures, ransomware has become the most profitable cyber threat in history, with billions of dollars receipts in the accounts of the attackers.
Huge financial stakes make ransomware developers constantly adapt their business model, attack techniques and strategies. The destruction of GandCrab by authorities and cybersecurity companies, formerly the leader of the ransomware market with a market share of more than 50%, left a void that other criminal groups attempted to fill with new versions of families Ransomware.
Consequently, the fragmentation of the market in smaller organizations will mean that the ransomware development market will become more resilient to the efforts of the security authorities and industry to terminate it.
Vulnerable smart devices can paralyze the internet
The number of smart devices sold globally exceeded 22 billion, and most are vulnerable to simple cyberattacks whereby attackers can remotely control them and add them to botnet networks. The zombie army of smart devices so created can take down critical infrastructures for the functioning of the Internet and even temporarily discontinue services that depend on IT infrastructures, causing potential losses estimated at EUR 12 million for employers in Romania for each hour their employees cannot operate.
Bitdefender’s specialists estimate that the number of smart gadgets will reach more than 40 billion to 2025, generating total traffic of almost 80 data zettabytes.
The stakes to compromise these devices are high because the attackers controlling networks of such compromised devices blackmail the owners of the attacked sites and demand important sums in exchange for the withdrawal of the armies they control. In the case of online stores or press sites, interruption of operation can cause enormous damage.
Even though legislators are working on a way to regulate the Internet of Things industry by introducing minimum security standards, attackers will continue to make money from vulnerabilities identified in various gadgets amid Increase the number of devices.
Bitdefender is a global cybersecurity and antivirus software leader protecting over 500 million systems in more than 150 countries. Since 2001, Bitdefender innovation has consistently delivered award-winning security products and threat intelligence for people, homes, businesses and their devices, networks and cloud services.
