Kaspersky Labs published their latest security bulletin where they outline their predictions for the malware dangers for 2017. Read on further to find out what they expect for next year in terms of cyber security issues.
Kaspersky Presents Their Predictions For 2017
Kaspersky Labs researchers have created their annual security bulletin in which they present their predictions in terms of security threats for the next year. According to the report there will be more banking threats . The experts propose that new attacks will target financial networks, servers and systems on the highest level. Some of the proposed targets include large stock exchanges.
Another major issue is another large-scale Internet attack. We have seen the consequences of the Mirai botnet and security experts worldwide, not just Kaspersky, are worried that something similar might happen again. The bad thing is that the criminals can cause an even larger damage next time if they know exactly where and how to hit.
Blackmail and extortion are one of the primary income generators for the criminal criminals. The big ransomware families depend on using clever social engineering tactics to receive large amounts of money from computer victims.
This year’s damage caused by the advanced persistent threat (APT) Project Sauron is another serious concern. This malware gives the idea that more serious derivatives might be developed. We might expect passive implants that have advanced stealth protection that use technologies that are similar to Project Sauron. The Kaspersky researcher speak of a possible network-operated backdoor that can create its own persistence on internal servers and gateways. Only upon activation it will start to follow its malicious agenda. Such scenarios are very dangerous as anti-spyware, intrusion detection systems and other security measures can often fail to detect them. This is the tool of choice for most advanced attacks and a favorite of the hackers who want to cause damage to critical infrastructure or high-profile corporations.
Do you remember the various PowerShell attacks? We might see memory-resident viruses that can be used to harvest sensitive information such as credit cards or account credentials. Such malware can be crafted in very a very small size and can attain persistence even after a system reboot. The fact that the malware code runs in PowerShell makes some strains undetectable by security software.
And That’s Not the End of It, the Kaspersky List Goes On
Espionage has become a major threat. The experts remind us of Sofacy, the espionage malware that was used to spy on computer users. We may see the adoption of more advanced variants of espionage tools that may be used in large attacks against different targets.
Kaspersky alarms of possible large-scale financial attacksindustrial systems. The rise of Stuxnet has paved the way for PLC Blaster, a worm that has the potential to cause disastrous effects to critical infrastructure.
For more detailed information on these and other issues that we may face next year, you can read Kaspersky’s detailed blog post on the matter.
