IoT Cyber Attack Trends to Watch Out for 2017

The Internet of Things (IoT), cloud storage and mobile devices are revolutionizing the world around us like nothing before but their benefits are accompanied by a challenge that many of us are not yet ready to deal with – cyberattack!

Chain Store Age, the leading providers of retail news and analysis, released their predictions for the upcoming cyber threats in 2017. Since their dark prophecy for 2016 turned out to be true, therefore, for businesses it is worth paying heed so that they can prepare themselves to keep up.

According to Chain Store Age’s forecast infrastructure like power plants, telecommunication networks, electrical grids, etc. constructed before the commencement of cyberattacks are at risk from organized cybercrime. Hence, it is imperative for security experts that they endeavour hard to improve safety measures to face attacks if any irrespective of source and motive.

The industrial IoT solutions will be more vulnerable to cyberattacks, notes Chain Store Age, as its operational technologies converge with informational technologies and most of the organizations run legacy security systems. To prevent such attacks, the industry sector needs to advance its security measures across the board and implement more threat prevention solutions.

Mobile devices will emerge as a major personal and corporate safety concern because mobile attacks will be more sophisticated than ever and grow in number. Organizations would need to closely monitor their mobile assets for vulnerable points to beat cybercrime attempts. Both ransomware and distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS), capable of halting business operations will be more prevalent in 2017.

It is anticipated that ransomeware and DDoS will also be used to target cloud-based data centres. Malignant code could be spread from cloud to cloud by cybercriminals as more and more organizations are opting for cloud-based solutions and storage. The motives and culprits of these cybercrime would be obscure as many organizations would be disrupted other than the targeted ones. Organizations must focus on implementing multifaceted cybercrime prevention strategies and meticulous data backup facilities. At the same time they must include peer organizations on collaborative security strategies along with cooperation with law enforcement.

Another important step is following best coding practices during application development. Therefore, always hire adept mobile application specialists so that secure coding practices are not compromised. Stay safe in the digital realm!