From 2020 we learned that our cybersecurity strategies must remain flexible. Cybersecurity experts could not anticipate how COVID-19 would disrupt IT projects around the world. As a result, numerous planned IT initiatives and projects were postponed so technical staff could implement remote access for employees.

What do cybersecurity experts anticipate for 2021? Many recommend preparing for the following six threats that will potentially have the most impact on organizations.  

#1 Pandemic Phishing

The COVID-19 pandemic will persist as a phishing campaign theme for cybercriminals. Their attacks will typically be carried out after some significant news event like a sudden rise in new cases or the success of a new vaccine. Their goal is to lure a victim into divulging sensitive information after opening an attachment with malware or clicking on a malicious link.

#2 Fileless Attack

A fileless attack exploits features and tools that already exist in the environment of the victim. It does not utilize file-based payloads, nor do they typically generate new files.  Thus, they have an improved chance of going undetected by traditional solutions for prevention and detection.

The usual fileless attack starts with a link to a malicious website being emailed to an unsuspecting employee. A social engineering ploy on the website can be launching system tools like PowerShell, which retrieves and executes additional payloads. As this is done directly from system memory, it is difficult to detect.

#3 Ransomware

Using cybercrime historical data, experts are projecting that a business will suffer a ransomware attack every 11 seconds this year. This is a decrease of three seconds from 2019, which saw a ransomware attack on an organization every 14 seconds. The economic damage from ransomware attacks will surpass $20 billion worldwide.

Part 2 will cover Cloud & Remote Services Targeted, Internet of Things (IoT) Exposed, and User Device Attacks.

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