Levels of hacking and phishing predicted to increase in 2019

2018 brought with it many major cyber-crime attacks over the year.

A number of global businesses and industries fell victim to data breaches including the likes of Facebook, Under Armour, MyHeritage and the Marriott Hotel Group – even the French President, Emmanuel Macron, had his emails hacked!

Together with increasing levels of ransomware and malware attacks, cyber security is rightly at the top of many business agendas in 2019. Here are what some of the world’s top experts are predicting for the year ahead.

McAfee

Leading software experts McAfee have warned that businesses may well find themselves ‘under siege’ from threats like malware, ransomware and over attacks in the coming months. They predict that criminals will turn to social media, cloud technologies and mobile phones as key windows for attacks and ‘upscale’ their efforts to bypass security controls.

Microsoft releases enhanced protections for ransomware aimed at small businesses

In the face of growing danger from cyber threats such as ransomware and phishing, Microsoft have released an upgraded set of features for their Microsoft 365 business edition in the hopes of safeguarding small businesses.

Microsoft has said that Microsoft 365 Business will now include sophisticated scanning of attachments and AI-powered analysis to uncover and destroy malicious messages. The updates also include automatic checking of links in emails and full device protection to prevent devices from accessing ransomware and other suspicious web locations.

Ransomware here to stay says Google

Businesses are being warned to protect themselves after tech giant Google released research claiming that cyber thieves have extorted a total of £19m from ransomware since 2015.

At a talk at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, Elie Bursztein from Google revealed the results of research conducted with Chainalysis, the University of California and New York University which looked at bitcoin transactions over the period. It concluded that ransomware has become a “very profitable market and is here to stay”.

Interestingly, Google highlighted the fact that less than 40% of computer users currently back up their data – a move which could protect you in the event of a ransomware attack. It also predicted that more varied strains of ransomware are being developed to compete with the already popular Locky and Cerber strains, which according to the report generated £5.9m and £5.2m from victims respectively.

How safe is Google Docs?

Launched in 2012, Google’s trio of services - Google Drive, Google Docs & Google Sheets - are a popular way for businesses to carry out their work online.

Google Drive acts a cloud storage service, Google Docs as an alternative to Microsoft Word and Google Sheets as an alternative to Microsoft Excel.

Among the perks of these services is the ability for multiple users to edit their work in real time. This means that from a business perspective you can have various different people working on a document and making changes that will be reflected instantly.  Because of the easy to use nature of Google’s apps, more and more businesses are becoming reliant on their services, storing lots of important and sometimes sensitive information along the way. But, exactly how safe is it to rely to on these services?

1bn Yahoo users’ information stolen in biggest breach ever

Internet giant Yahoo announced this week that it had discovered over 1bn of its users’ accounts had been compromised following a historical hack three years ago.

Yahoo has announced that they have discovered a historical hack from August 2013 which surpasses their own previously set record of 500 million accounts, set only months earlier in September. This is an act that they claimed had been conducted by an ‘unnamed’ government.

Weebly users’ data leaked: how can you protect your own passwords?

Weebly, a popular ‘drag and drop’ build your own website company, has become the latest target for hackers as the company announced a huge data leak of customer data.

Weebly, which is based in San Francisco, has begun notifying customers of a serious data breach which occurred earlier this year. According to LeakedSource, over 43,000,000 customers had their details stolen with usernames, email addresses, passwords and IP addresses all obtained.

Will your employees be tricked by email scams and viruses?

Despite an ever increasing number of online attacks being reported in the media and harrowing new cyber threats like Ransomware being created, many companies are still failing to take effective action to improve their online security. As well as failing to keep their anti-virus software and firewalls up to date, they also fail to educate their workforce on the latest threats - a key part of securing their operations.

Phishing scams are one of the most common forms of fraud committed online today. They involve tricking an email recipient into handing over sensitive data and trusted information. A hacker may send an email which looks as if it has been sent by a supplier, a company that you work with on a regular basis, a service provider or even another employee in your own business. So they aren’t always obvious. They hacker may then try and encourage the recipient to download a piece of software, visit an unsafe website or supply them directly with sensitive information that they can exploit.

Whaling – a dangerous new cyber threat

One of the most recent cyber security threats to come to our attention is the ‘whaling’ scam. This is a highly personalised form of phishing used to trick victims into giving away sensitive information and access to networks.

What is it?

Most phishing scams target a wide range of people and hackers will send their scam emails to a large number of recipients. However ‘whaling’ is different in that cyber criminals approach one ‘high value’ target with a highly personalised message instead.

Ubiquiti Networks, a provider of high-end wireless networking products, recently fell victim to a whaling attack which resulted in losses of $47m (£30m) for the company.

Hackers are taking over LinkedIn profiles – what can you do?

A recent investigation by the security firm Symnatec has uncovered that hackers are creating fake profiles on the social networking site LinkedIn in an effort to scam users.

LinkedIn was established in 2003 and is a social networking site used by over 400 million professionals worldwide as an online form of business networking.

As well as allowing businesses to connect with each other, it is also provides a reliable way for recruiters to headhunt potential employees by sending them ‘connection requests’ which allow them to be able to send each other messages – a feature which hackers are now believed to be exploiting.