Listing their top cyber threats of 2022, McAfee Enterprise and FireEye today released their 2022 Threat Predictions.
Bad actors will build on the successful attacks of 2021, from ransomware to attacks on nation states and those exploiting the vulnerabilities created by remote workforces. This year’s campaigns are expected to grow in sophistication.
“Over this past year, we have seen cybercriminals get smarter and quicker at retooling their tactics to follow new bad actor schemes – from ransomware to nation states – and we don’t anticipate that changing in 2022,” said Raj Samani, fellow and chief scientist of the combined company.
McAfee Enterprise & FireEye’s 2022 top cyber threats:
Attacks via social media
The targeting of individuals through social media will continue and grow through espionage groups and others seeking criminal gains.
Hackers for hire
Nation states will make use of cyber criminals in attacks directed and controlled by the state’s own intelligence organisations. The initial breaches might appear like regular attacks, but the goals and outcomes could be very different.
Smaller affiliates
The Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) environment has evolved with the use middlemen who play the role of developers for a share of the profits. The targeting of these developers and the fact that the hackers themselves are rarely targeted by authorities, has emboldened the hackers and given them time to build their skills.
Network control
The self-reliant groups mentioned above will become more powerful as they control the target networks. This could well lead to conflicts as differing groups compete with one another.
Watch out for API
More than 80% of internet traffic belongs to API-based services, according to a recent report. The connected nature of API services makes them an additional risk as they form an entry vector for supply chain attacks.
Application containers as targets
Increased attacks on application containers will occur through the orchestration layers, using malicious or backdoored images as a result of insufficient vulnerability checks.
Zero-day vulnerabilities
Zero-day vulnerabilities continued to be exploited and this is set to continue and companies will need to focus on reducing their “time to patch”.
