By the looks of things 2017 is going to be one heck of a year, tanking of the ringgit, sluggish economy, unstable oil prices and the cherry, Trump as President of the US of A. During the feverish nomination period between the president elect and his opponent Hillary Clinton, accusations of espionage and cyber warfare were thrown at each other, Hillary pointed out on how the election result is being manipulated by Russian trolls, and in return Donald spoke at length throughout his campaign on the democrats private emails being compromised. While both vehemently denied of any of the act, the threat is real and is getting bolder.

Kaspersky Labs the internet security firm made popular in Malaysia by Jackie Chan, prepares its annual prediction of threats the new world faces from cyber attackers using bespoke and disposable tools derived by its  Global Research and Analysis Team.  For 2017 the company has listed top threats that poses the connected world, with increase alarm, here are some of the identified areas.

The decline of IoCs

Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) have long been an excellent way of sharing traits of known malware, allowing defenders to recognize an active infection. The discovery of the ProjectSauron APT changed this. Analysis of the group revealed a bespoke malware platformwhere every feature was altered for each victim, rendering IoCs unreliable for detecting any other victim, unless accompanied by another measure, such as strong Yara rules.

The rise of ephemeral infections

In 2017, Kaspersky Lab also expects to see the appearance of memory-resident malware that has no interest in surviving beyond the first reboot that will wipe the infection from the machine memory. Such malware, intended for general reconnaissance and the collection of credentials, is likely to be deployed in highly sensitive environments by stealthy attackers keen to avoid arousing suspicion or discovery.

• Attribution will flounder among false flags: As cyberattacks come to play a greater role in international relations, attribution will become a central issue in determining a political course of action – such as retaliation.  The pursuit of attribution could result in the risk of more criminals dumping infrastructure or proprietary tools on the open market, or opting for open-source and commercial malware, not to mention the widespread use of misdirection (generally known as false flags) to muddy the waters of attribution.
• The Rise of Information Warfare: In 2016, the world started to take seriously the dumping of hacked information for aggressive purposes. Such attacks are likely to increase in 2017, and there is a risk that attackers will try to exploit people’s willingness to accept such data as fact by manipulating or selectively disclosing information.
• Rise in Vigilante Hackers – hacking and dumping data, allegedly for the greater good.
• Big Scale Cyber-sabotage: As critical infrastructure and manufacturing systems remain connected to the Internet, often with little or no protection – the temptation to damage or disrupt them could prove overwhelming for cyberattackers. Big scale attacks.
• Espionage Goes Mobile:  espionage campaigns targeted primarily at mobile, benefiting from the fact that the security industry can struggle to gain full access to mobile operating systems for forensic analysis.
• Financial Attacks: the firm expects to see the ‘commodification’ of attacks along the lines of the 2016 SWIFT heists in 2016 – with specialized resources being offered for sale in underground forums or through as-a-service schemes.
• Payment Systems: As payment systems become increasingly popular and common more interest by criminals is being targeted in this area (Black Hat- Chris Hemsworth)
• The Ransomware Trust: victims are not convinced with these threats, as they are not sure if the attackers are genuinely returning the stolen data without compromising. Many are not paying, criminals are also losing interest in this space.
• IOT Danger: As IoT-device manufacturers continue to pump out unsecured devices that cause wide-scale problems, there is a risk that vigilante hackers could take matters into their own hands and disable as many devices as possible.
• The Criminal Appeal of Digital Advertising: Over the next year, we will see the kind of tracking and targeting tools increasingly used in advertising being used to monitor alleged activistsand dissidents.