Cyber security was outlined as one of the biggest global risks in the recent Global Risks Report by the World Economic Forum.  The report identified the potential for AI-driven attacks to critical infrastructure as the 5th biggest risk the world faces in 2019.

The scale of the risk was underlined by the annual Threat Landscape Report produced by cyber security company Avast, which was produced based upon the two billion or so attacks prevented each month by the Avast Threat Labs team.  By analyzing this huge database of attacks, a number of key trends have emerged.

Growing threats

Firstly, the company are seeing a growing number of ‘DeepAttacks’, which use AI-generated content to help bypass traditional security controls.  This includes things such as the fake Obama video that was created by Buzzfeed.  These attacks are increasingly able to bypass even the most sophisticated object detection algorithms, and the company expect more DeepAttacks to be deployed in the coming year.

Avast also believe that IoT related threats will not only grow in prominence, but become more sophisticated.  Whilst more and more devices are connected to the Internet, Avast suggest that security is usually an afterthought in the design of the device, thus putting the security of smart homes at risk.  The report suggests that as smart home devices become more commonplace, the sophistication of hacking attempts will rise in unison.

It is also perhaps not surprising that they believe the threat to mobile devices is set to continue in 2019.  The report highlights that the company tracked a growing number of fake apps during the past year, and such is their ubiquity that they barely even register today.  This is a mistake, as the apps are likely to become more sophisticate din 2019, and realistic fakes of popular brands are set to try and hoodwink users in the coming year.

It’s perhaps not too surprising that banking remains a common target for criminals, and Avast believe that banking Trojans are likely to be a more popular application than cryptomining for criminals.

“This year, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web. Fast forward thirty years and the threat landscape is exponentially more complex, and the available attack surface is growing faster than it has at any other point in the history of technology.” Avast say.  “PC viruses, while still a global threat, have been joined by a multitude of malware categories that deliver more attacks. People are acquiring more and varied types of connected devices, meaning every aspect of our lives could be compromised by an attack. Looking ahead to 2019, these trends point to a magnification of threats through these expanding threat surfaces.”

These trends form part of Avast’s annual Threat Report. To download the full report please click here.