The number of attacks on enterprises and software developers will increase in 2018

Technological enterprises and developers of legal software (software) can become new targets of hacker attacks in 2018, the report of Kaspersky Lab says.

Experts believe that the number of attacks on developers of legitimate software will increase. Simply put, attacking will not be the ultimate goals – as a rule, these are large companies with reliable and multi-layered cyber defense. In such cases it is much easier to use an intermediary, which a producer of popular programs used in the corporate segment can make, the report says.

According to the company, attacks of extortion viruses WannaCry, ExPetr and Bad Rabbit have shown that technological networks can be even more vulnerable than corporate ones.

At the same time, the damage from the activity of malicious software in the technological network may exceed the harm caused by the same software in the corporate network, and the actions of personnel in the case of cyber attacks on the technological infrastructure are often organized inefficiently. All these factors make industrial systems attractive targets for attacks with the use of extortion programs.

The home routers and modems can also be at risk, the document says. Experts “Laboratories” recommended users to change the factory passwords of these devices and, preferably, to allocate a separate subnet for home devices.

Another threat that awaits the network community in the next 12 months is the massive hacking of routers and modems. These devices play the role of a kind of “gatekeepers” opening the door to the Internet, which makes them the target of intruders when they want to quietly gain a foothold in the network.

A recent study by Kaspersky Lab showed that cybercriminals can mimic various Internet users by masking their actions with a different connection address. In favor of this scenario, says that “smart” devices are becoming more powerful, which means that the opportunities of cybercriminals increase many times.

In addition, in 2018, according to experts, attackers can go beyond the boundaries of familiar devices and begin to actively attack new Internet-connected systems, such as cars or medical devices. So, in the case of cars, attackers can infect the car owner’s smartphone and manipulate an application that manages the various functions of the car: opening and closing doors, starting the engine, locating, and so on.