Top 10 Cybercrime Trends to Beware of in the Digital World

Cybersecurity is a fast-changing domain where new and innovative and novel cybercrime techniques have become a norm

With ever-growing digitalization and newer technologies making forays into our lives, it has become hard to predict cybercrime strategies looming in the dark. Cybersecurity is a fast-changing domain where cybercriminals are always a step ahead in surprising us with ever new and innovative and novel cybercrime techniques. Analytics Insights brings you the top 10 cybercrime trends that you would want to have on your radar in 2022.

1. Automotive Hacking: Vehicles equipped with automatic driving software giving seamless connectivity to drivers, and advanced driver assistance systems are going to become vulnerable to cyberattacks. Hackers can easily gain control of the vehicle or use microphones for eavesdropping.

2. Application of AI: AI has revolutionised every sector and cybersecurity is not an exception. Artificial Intelligence will play a crucial role in building automated security systems, natural language processing, face detection, and automatic threat detection. The predictive technology will be capable of detecting threats in advance.

3. Mobiles are new targets: In 2019, there was a 50% increase in mobile banking malware and attacks. This trend is only going to worsen in 2022. According to Microsoft 365 defender research team, more variants of mobile variants can be expected in the future. This is mainly due to machine learning, which feeds the evolution of malware.

4. Proliferation of ransomware: Targeting individuals and companies with ransomware will be a major threat in the coming years. Industries, particularly in developing countries, depend heavily on specialized software to run their daily operations. For example, in 2020, the Wanna Cry ransomware attack on the Public Health Service Hospitals in England and Scotland infected more than 70,000 medical equipment.

5. Cloud computing at risk: Companies are gradually shifting their operations to the cloud and this is only going to accelerate in the future. However, the cloud has proved equally vulnerable to cybercrimes, with hackers breaching into cloud data. Vulnerabilities of cloud applications, insufficient data deletion, cloud storage configuration issues, and lack of access and power are only a few problems among many which are yet to be invented!!

6. Malware embedded advertising: Also known as 'malvertising', is going to pose a significant threat in 2022. It is achieved by inserting malicious code into advertisements, which are then published on different websites through legitimate online advertising networks. They force the victim to take 'false action', making the website vulnerable to scammers.

7. State-sponsored Cyber Warfare: Putting rest to traditional war theories, cybercrime will define world politics in a new light. The all-connected world will be in a frenzy in disrupting the digital infrastructure of belligerent parties. The spike in cyberattacks will be particularly apparent during elections. With more than 70 elections to be held this year, we can expect more data breaches and leakage of high-profile information during this period.

8. Insider threats: Human error and fraud, intentional or unintentional, will cause major breaches in security infrastructure. One minor misstep such as opening an e-mail with a corrupted attachment or link can pull down an entire company. According to a report published by a leading security research agency, workers are personally or partially responsible for 34% of all assaults.

9. Remote work, a new arena for threats: COVID-19 has pushed many companies to loosen the security requirements to keep the work flowing. Though their IT departments worked hard to ensure utmost security, it kept the opportunities for assaults open. Apart from managing remote security, security managers should also look into the issue of corrupted systems after the employees get back to the office.

10. Cryptocurrency-driven attacks: Cryptocurrency thrives on the notion of decentralized system, sans government control. It has garnered immense popularity among wealth seekers for the freedom it offers. Cybercriminals are finding a resort in cryptocurrencies to fund their attacks. According to a report, Malwarebytes, an anti-malware software company, reported that in 2017, around 250 million coin-mining malware attacks were attempted in just one month.