Homepage Bench PR newsroom

Trend Micro predicts vulnerabilities will drive major cyberattacks in 2018

Announcement posted by Bench PR 06 Dec 2017

Australian businesses will require reliable patch management to block latest threats from the changing technology landscape

SYDNEY, 6 December 2017 – This year, cyberattacks continued to plague business leaders, with major breaches occurring due to known vulnerabilities. Trend Micro, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, predicts the trend of known vulnerabilities being used in major attacks will continue in 2018 as corporate attack surfaces expand and expose more security holes. Patch management and employee education should be prioritised for all executives to protect an organisation’s most critical data. 

As information technology and operational technology (IT/OT) continue to converge, enterprise applications and platforms will be at risk of manipulation and vulnerabilities, as stated in Trend Micro’s 2018 predictions report. 

“Many devastating cyberattacks in 2017 leveraged known vulnerabilities that could have been prevented had they been patched beforehand. This trend will continue into 2018 as corporate attack surfaces expand and expose more security holes,” said Dr Jon Oliver, director and data scientist at Trend Micro. While this remains a challenge for enterprises, executives should prioritise vulnerability management as they make 2018 cybersecurity plans This is particularly relevant with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme coming into effect in Australia on 22 February 2018.” 

The reports highlights that ransomware will continue to be a mainstay due to its proven success and that  there will be an increase in targeted ransomware attacks, in which the criminals go after a single organisation to disrupt operations and force a larger ransom payout.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks will also continue to gain popularity with attackers, as the return on investment for successful attacks is quite high. Australian businesses and organisations need to be vigilant and implement strict protocols on internal processes, especially when making any financial transactions to avoid being affected.  

“The mandatory data breach notification scheme for Australia as well as the GDPR legislation in Europe, both which will come into effect next year will have an impact on how businesses and organisations view and report breaches,” continued Dr. Oliver. “These laws will lead to greater transparency and accountability among Australian enterprises which will help minimise the impact on customers and reduce the value of the stolen data, thereby acting as a deterrent to cybercriminals. ” 

Trend Micro also predicts an increase in Internet of Things (IoT) vulnerabilities as more devices are manufactured without security regulations or industry standards. Overall, the increased connectivity and enlarged attack surface presents new opportunities for cybercriminals to leverage known issues to penetrate a corporate network.  

Threat actors will also leverage growing technologies, like blockchain and machine learning, to enhance obfuscation against traditional cybersecurity protections. For this reason, Trend Micro recommends a layered, cross-generational defense strategy, which combines the latest security techniques with proven tactics that reinforce nearly 30 years of experience protecting some of the biggest global brands.  

Highlights from Trend Micro’s 2018 predictions report include:

     Vulnerabilities will be key to successful attacks in 2018. The most appealing vulnerabilities to attackers are likely to be those that have been around for a while but have not been patched in corporate networks.

·       * Cybercriminals will look to target single organisations, possibly in an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) environment, for a ransomware attack that will disrupt the operations and affect the automated production line.

·    GDPR will be used as an extortion mechanism in ransomware. Cybercriminals could target private data covered by the regulation and ask companies to pay an extortion fee rather than risk punitive fines of up to four percent of their annual turnover.

·       More IoT devices, like biometric trackers, drones, speakers and voice assistants, will be hijacked to track data, hijack deliveries, hack into home networks, and more.

·       Technologies like machine learning and blockchain will be circumvented and abused by cybercriminals at an increased rate.

·       BEC incidents will multiply in 2018, leading to as much as US$9 billion* in global losses.

·      Cyber-propaganda campaigns will be refined using tried-and-tested techniques from past spam campaigns.

To access the complete report, “Paradigm Shifts: Trend Micro Security Predictions for 2018,” please visit: https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/au/security/research-and-analysis/predictions/2018.

 

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, helps to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Our innovative solutions for consumers, businesses, and governments provide layered security for data centers, cloud environments, networks, and endpoints. All our products work together to seamlessly share threat intelligence and provide a connected threat defense with centralised visibility and control, enabling better, faster protection. With over 5,000 employees in over 50 countries and the world’s most advanced global threat intelligence, Trend Micro enables organisations to secure their journey to the cloud. For more information, visit www.trendmicro.com.au.

 

###