December 6, 2023 at 03:21AM
Trend Micro’s security predictions for 2024 emphasize the need for organizations to adapt their cybersecurity to evolving technologies like cloud, AI/ML, and Web3. Expected threats include cloud-native worms exploiting misconfigurations, sophisticated AI-generated social engineering scams, data poisoning against ML models, CI/CD pipeline attacks on software supply chains, and blockchain-based extortion schemes. Proper security measures and preparedness are advised for safe business expansion.
Key Takeaways from Trend Micro’s Security Predictions for 2024:
– **Advancements in Technology and Associated Risks**: Organizations are set to lead digital transformations by integrating emerging technologies such as cloud advancements, AI/ML, and Web3, which will simultaneously create new security challenges. These technologies will require robust IT infrastructures for efficient implementation while also securing against arising threats.
– **Potential for Enhanced Cloud Attacks**: Enterprises need to be vigilant of cloud misconfigurations in 2024, which could lead to large-scale “living-off-the-cloud” attacks. Security teams must monitor their cloud environments for cyberattacks that use cloud-native worms to exploit vulnerabilities and use rootkits for persistence, particularly threatening containerized applications.
– **Sophistication in Social Engineering Scams**: AI-generated media will likely be utilized by cybercriminals for more advanced social engineering scams. Despite shutdowns of malicious AI tools like WormGPT, similar technologies may arise, with a notable increase in targeted attacks involving voice cloning.
– **Data Poisoning Threats**: Attacks on machine-learning models through data poisoning are expected to rise. This involves corrupting training data during the collection phase or by attacking data storage or pipelines, especially targeting specialized models with focused datasets, necessitating increased security measures for ML training data acquisition.
– **Software Supply Chain Vulnerability**: The software supply chain remains at risk due to potential infiltration through CI/CD systems. Software development processes are threatened by third-party components, which may lack security audits or contain vulnerabilities, underlining the importance of careful sourcing and routine scanning of third-party code.
– **Blockchain-based Extortion and Crime**: New extortion schemes and criminal organizations may emerge around private blockchains due to their centralized nature and lack of resilience. These could involve ransom demands following the insertion of malicious data or modification of records on the blockchain or by seizing control of enough nodes to encrypt private blockchains. The advent of criminal groups operating entirely on blockchain with smart contracts or decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) is anticipated.
– **Recommendations for Organizations**: For organizations to safely adopt transformative technologies, they must ensure a robust security posture that emphasizes preparedness and due diligence, allowing them to expand without undue risk exposure and protect against future cyberthreats.
For more details and to understand the security considerations and challenges for 2024, Trend Micro recommends reading their full report, “Critical Scalability: Trend Micro Security Predictions for 2024.”