Cybersecurity forecasts for 2018: even more damage

Source: Group-IB. Hi-tech crime trends.

In the next year, the main point of losses for banks from cyberattacks will be not theft of money, but destruction of their IT infrastructure during the final stages of a targeted hacking attack, says Group-IB, which helps major corporations recognise and react to online threats originating in Russia, Eastern Europe, and other major centres for targeted cyberattacks.

Banks used to only be attacked by cybercriminals, but are now targeted increasingly often by state-linked hackers, Group-IB explains. Destroying IT infrastructure helps cybercriminals to cover their tracks if they are engaging in thefts, while state-sponsored hackers will aim to maximise damage to banks and discontinue banking operations. Either way, the damage done to banks may be even greater than the amount of funds stolen due to service interruptions and resulting reputational and regulatory impact, the consultancy said.

Further, hackers will successfully attack more industrial facilities as they have learnt how to work with the logic of critical infrastructure, right down to the unique characteristics of the custom infrastructure in specific facilities. "Over the past year, we have observed that hackers' competence has increased along with their capacities to impact critical infrastructure. Therefore, we now forecast new large-scale incidents targeting industrials and related core infrastructure," stated Group-IB.

Banks are no longer a priority - the crypto industry (initial coin offerings [ICO], wallets, exchanges, funds) has become attractive as it has been accumulating growing amounts of capitalisations and funds. There is no difference in the technical difficulty of attacking service providers in this sector, Group-IB points out, and there is the advantage of the security in place and maturity of Blockchain companies being "significantly lower". "A further motivation for criminal attackers is that Blockchain technologies are more anonymous and unregulated - this considerably reduces the risk of being caught during money withdrawal," the company said.

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