“Cybercriminal gangs of the 21st century will target cloud-based applications and data repositories because that’s where the data is” as predicted in  McAfee® Labs’ 2014 Threat Predictions.  Cloud cyber vulnerability was stressed by McAfee:

  • This could be through business applications that have not been assessed by IT against corporate security policies.
  • According to a recent report, more than 80% of business users use cloud applications without the knowledge or support of corporate IT.

The 2014 Threat Predictions were presented in 7 categories:

1: Mobile malware will be the driver of growth in both technical innovation and the volume of attacks in the overall malware “market” in 2014.

2: Virtual currencies will fuel increasingly malicious ransomware attacks around the world.

3: In the spy vs. spy world of cybercrime and cyberwarfare, criminal gangs and state actors will deploy new stealth attacks that will be harder than ever to identify and stop.

4: “Social attacks” will be ubiquitous by the end of 2014.

5: New PC and server attacks will target vulnerabilities above and below the operating system.

6: The evolving threat landscape will dictate adoption of big data security analytics to meet detection and performance requirements.

7: Deployment of cloud-based corporate applications will create new attack surfaces that will be exploited by cybercriminals.

Willie Sutton robbed banks because “that’s where the money is,” so McAfee made the point that cybercriminals go where the money and cloud data are using the quote “credited to Willie Sutton, who is said to have robbed 100 banks in the early 20th century.”

In the #3 spy v. spy world of cybercrime McAfee predicted:

Politically motivated attacks will continue to increase, especially around the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics (in February) and the FIFA World Cup in Brazil (June-July). Hacktivists will also take advantage of these events to promote their ideas.

So stay tuned to see cyber warfare in 2014.

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