New Types Of Cyber Attacks You May Face In 2020

Cybersecurity threats were a huge problem last year.

As a matter of fact, Forbes reported that just in the first 6 months of 2019 there were 3,800 publicly disclosed breaches— a whopping 52 percent surge from the first 6 months of 2018. In addition, data breaches in 2019 have affected every sector, from healthcare and financials to entertainment and even the government.

Thus, it is expected that cyber threats will persist to be a problem this year. In addition to the existing cyber-attacks, here are some new types of security threats that you may face this 2020.

1. Gone SMiShing

Phishing is old school.

And with the arrival of a new decade, cybercriminals are more likely to use “smishing” as their latest identity theft trick.

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Cybercriminals activate their smishing strategies via sensing faulty SMS to unsuspecting consumers and also requesting sensitive data like bank account information or credit card, which may result in identity theft.

Poor grammar and misspelled words are just some of the tell-tale signs that a text may not be what it seems. However, with the increasingly sophisticated attacks, you shouldn’t rely on this. The safest bet is to avoid responding to text messages or clicking links from an unknown sender and deleting them right away!

2. The Price of Mobile Payments

It is no doubt that the mobile payments sector is booming without any signs of slowing down, thanks to the relatively low cost for retailers and the convenience it gives to consumers.

However as mobile POS platforms like those used at sporting events or concerts become more popular, hackers can use this new payment method to extract sensitive information and tamper with transactions.

3. Trouble In The Cloud

Most organizations have migrated their information and data to the cloud last year, with the hope that this could help lessen eh risk of cyber threats.

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Simply moving the data to the cloud, however, doesn’t guarantee that your data are actually safer. After all, the Capital One breach which is one of the largest breaches in 2019, happened when a hacker infiltrated the servers of a 3^rd party Cloud computing company that the organization used and resulted in approximately 106 million records exposed.

In addition, Cloud Jacking is predicted to be one of the most prominent cybercrime this 2020 because of the increased use of cloud computing. The Cloud security’s infrastructure is going to have surged in complexity as attacks on Cloud services also become more complicated.

4. Hackers From The Skies

When thinking of hackers, you probably imagine someone sitting in front of a computer screen in order to steal sensitive data.

While it is still true today, this 2020, hackers have become more sophisticated and can use a much different method. They tend to focus more on public Wi-Fi networks that most cities have implemented via the skies.

Now, cybercriminals can equip drone devices with a hand-held hacking device (Pineapple technology) to scour the skies for any consumer data on such public Wi-Fi networks. And with over 1 million drone devices that operate the U.S. skies, hackers have a whole new airway for stealing data.

5. Deepfake Is The New Buzzword

The term “deepfake” was coined a few years ago. This 2020 though, it will become the buzzword.

This technology allows cybercriminals to spread misinformation digitally via the auto-generation of fake audio recording and videos, as well as swapping the faces of politicians and celebrities into what can be potentially viral content on social media.

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This now readily available technology uses new forms of “stalkerware”, a kind of spyware that tracks the victim’s phone data in order to build up a picture of their activities and used in creating fake videos, written communications or voice recordings.

It is expected to cause a large-scale disruption across financial markets, politics, and industries as people struggle to distinguish the real from the fake.