By Edd K. Usman
Organizations ? whether big or small, public or private — must not look for a magical fix against the various kinds of threats that bad guys are unleashing in the connected world.
Cherif Djerboua, regional head of Trend Micro for Asia and Middle East, relayed this message at the recent “Decode 2017: Cybersecurity Threat Landscape” forum in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.
“All I would say is that there is no silver bullet in terms of responding to these kinds of threats. But we need to come together ? the private sector, the leaders in the cybersecurity world, governments, and law enforcement agencies — to fight this problem,” said Djerboua.
“Collaboration is the only we can be successful,” said Djerboua, emphasizing the hackers will exploit the “weakest link” among organizations.
Shortly after the conference, Trend Micro also released its predictions of cybersecurity trends for 2018. The cybersecurity vendor said there are seven trends which businesses and consumers should prepare for to protect themselves in the incoming year.
First, ransomware will continue to be pervasive. At the same time, cybercriminals will introduce new types of digital extortion.
Phishing will continue to be staged by attackers to deliver ransomware, but they will also go for the bigger money by hitting organizations that employ the Internet of Things (IoT) to disrupt the operations and impact the production line.
Second, cybercriminals are expected to further explore new ways to abuse the ubiquitous IoT trend to make money.
Trend Micro said cybercriminals will not just launch DDoS attacks but will also get into IoT devices to create proxies to hide their location from law enforcement agencies.
Third, businesses across the world will lose more than $9 billions through various types of scams such as business email compromise (BEC).
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has BEC is now in over 100 countries, with losses in 2017 estimated at $9 billion.
Fourth, fake new will increase as usual in social media and continue to sway public opinion. The spread of cyber propaganda is expected to spread through the usual means — email and the Internet.
Fifth, cybercriminals will leverage machine learning to evade detection. Going into the future, machine learning will be key component of security solutions for its potential for more accurate and targeted decision-making.
Sixth, the European Union will roll out in May 2018 its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) but numerous businesses will not adopt it immediately.
Seventh, business software and platforms may be infiltrated by malicious actors whose objective is to manipulate the system and cause operational disruptions and damages.
In the face of these threats, Trend Micro advised enterprises and users to put themselves in a better position by putting in place protections capable to cover the whole threat lifecycle with multiple security layers.
“From email and Web gateway to the endpoint, having a connected threat defence ensures maximum protection against constantly evolving threats of 2018 and beyond,” the company said .
Djerboua cited the Philippines for coming up with the Data Privacy Law, while other countries have yet to catch up.
“We need to collaborate to ensure that we are collaborating with governments and taking appropriate actions in terms of protecting the personal information of the citizens,” he said.
