How big is the cybercrime problem for 2020? It has become the latest news, with major security breaches grabbing headlines. According to a 2019 Statista survey, 114,702 residents of the USA were victims of cybercrimes in 2019, including phishing, vishing, smishing, and pharming. Scammers are always coming up with new ways to harm and derail individuals, businesses, and organizations. A vivid example of this is a recent sensational Twitter account hack of some of the world’s most powerful people. Some of these same threats remain real and relevant for modern businesses.

Learning about forthcoming threats and emergencies in 2020 will help you take preventive measures to protect yourself and your business.

  1. Social engineering attacks. Criminals have always carried out social engineering attacks (e.g. phishing) to induce people to reveal sensitive and confidential data like bank card details or passwords. Modern companies are improving their email safety to prevent this type of cybercrime from happening. However, cybercriminals keep on discovering new malware tools that assist in security breaches. This type of cyber attack requires a small investment and brings immediate payback.
  2. Ransomware. Ransomware attacks cost companies large sums of money annually since criminals use a tech stack that lets them access personal data and company databases and hold the information for ransom. According to the Statista survey, 1182 companies with over 500 employees suffered from ransomware attacks in 2019. Only 66,9% of them could pay the ransom using Bitcoin or another anonymous cryptocurrency and recover data. This type of cybercrime is likely to concentrate on companies rather than individuals because a large business is more likely to be able to pay the ransom.
  3. Deepfake. Deepfake is fake media, where a real person’s image is replaced with another person’s likeness, and added to audio in an existing video where the person is speaking. This type of cybercrime is constantly developing as its algorithms improve. As deepfake evolves, hackers will use it to harm different industries (e.g., finance, politics). And of course, this AI-powered technology presents a serious threat to the forthcoming elections. Criminals use it to steal large sums of money from companies and damage the reputations of brands and individuals.
  4. Cloud vulnerability. This is one of the major recent cybersecurity threats, as businesses use more cloud solutions to store personal information. Such companies become alluring targets for cybercriminals. Data leaks, configuration errors, unsafe APIs, stealing user accounts, insider threats to organizations, and others are the most common cloud threats. They will continue to threaten businesses that do not invest in cloud safety.
  5. IoT-based attacks. IoT attacks misuse individuals’ access to Internet-connected gadgets. Attackers do this to install the malware in devices that individuals connect to the Internet at their homes. Some of them have safety issues, which enables cybercriminals to hack the devices and access business networks. IoT attacks are focused on Internet-connected devices, mainly because they go unnoticed when it comes to corrective actions.

In this epoch of digitalization, attackers are constantly seeking new strategies to harm businesses. Companies must be watchful, and find innovative ways to protect sensitive data from hackers.

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