EDITOR’S QUESTION
WHAT ARE
THE BIGGEST
CYBERSECURITY
CONCERNS FOR THE
MIDDLE EAST IN 2019?
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V
endors from across the cybersecurity
sector have revealed their 2019
threat predictions in a bid to help
CIOs make informed decisions this year.
One such example is the McAfee Labs 2019
Threats Predictions Report which identifies
rising trends and how they are predicted to
change the cyberthreat landscape in 2019.
“
CORPORATE
DATA, HOME
IOT DEVICES
AND BRAND
REPUTATIONS
WILL BE
UNDER SIEGE.
30
INTELLIGENTCIO
McAfee researchers expect malware-as-a-
service families to strengthen, energising
the market for attack outsourcing and
the evolution of increasingly innovative
and agile attack methods. As a result,
corporate data, home IoT devices and
brand reputations will be under siege,
with cybercriminals largely using social
media, the cloud and mobile phones as
increasingly prominent attack vectors.
Predictions
• Cybercriminals underground to
consolidate and collaborate through
stronger partnerships
• Prevalence of attack outsourcing will
lead to use of Artificial Intelligence in
evasion tactics
• Bad actors will combine multiple attack
types to create synergistic super threats
• Cybercriminals to use bots, negative
social media campaigns to extort brands
• Significant increase expected in data
exfiltration attempts from the cloud
• Digital assistants to become the next
vector for home IoT attacks
• Data-rich social media platforms will
continue to be popular attack targets
“In 2018, we witnessed even greater
collaboration among cybercriminals through
underground alliances,” said Raj Samani,
Chief Scientist at McAfee.
“This collaborative mentality has allowed
for efficiencies in underground technologies
and tactics, and the evolution of bad actors
into some of the most organised and agile
adversaries in the world.
“However, while we expect the underground
market collaboration to continue, the year
2019 will also see cybersecurity alliances of
defenders continuing to mature and further
fortify defences.”
The report reflects the informed opinions of
thought leaders from McAfee Labs, McAfee
Advanced Threat Research and members of
McAfee’s Office of the CTO.
It examines current trends in cybercrime and
the evolution of IT, and anticipates what the
future may hold for organisations, consumers
and those working to protect them.
www.intelligentcio.com