Top 9 Cybersecurity Threats to Watch Out for in This 2021

Cybercrime Will Be Among Biggest Issues Humanity Will Face in Coming 2 Decades

2020 hasn’t brought anything good to humanity. From the beginning of the year, everyone has seen how the situation has worsened due to COVID-19. Even though the world suffers from the pandemic, cybercrime hasn’t seen a halt. And for the worst, the organization had to fight the widespread cyberattacks this 2020, including some worst hacks and breaches.

Cybercriminals have made their way unapologetically without any regrets. People and organizations had become victims of such cyberattacks. So, it’s not new to say that even though the world has seen such a ravaging Coronavirus, cyber threats aren’t something that should be ignored or taken for granted.

Cyberattacks are increasing daily, and it’ll happen in the future as well. Cybercrooks are becoming more creative by trying new ways to trick users and technology into accessing critical information and data like passwords. Apart from these challenges for mobile devices are also among cyber risks due to advancing technology, making it possible to store critical information like bank account details, email addresses, credit card numbers, and more.

However, that’s also true that similar to 2020. New 2021 will also be the same. It’ll see some cyberthreats that everyone should stay alert at. Many organizations already understand the risk involved in the near future. And, falling behind in preparing for such risks is not someone would like to consider.

Here Are Some of the Cyberattacks to Watch Out for in This 2021

Further, it’s better to take active steps on preparing yourself for the new 2021. As everyone looks ahead of January, it goes without saying that an organization should prepare themselves for the future. Based on this, some of the cybersecurity threats that everyone should watch for in this new 2021 are:

1. DDoS Attacks

The DDoS attack is among those attacks that publicly embrace their victims by driving away users. All organizations are aware of DDoS attacks and how rapidly it’s growing in the current market. However, DDoS is becoming more sophisticated, and it’s quite challenging for existing solutions. And, as the world prepares for cyberthreats in the coming 2021, DDoS is one of the threats that should be addressed.

DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service Attack) is one of the old attacks that overload your company site. The site starts getting traffic that the server cannot handle, ultimately causing the whole system to crash temporarily.

A famous example was of 2018 DDoS attack on GitHub. And this type of attack will continue in the coming 2021 as well. So, you should keep an eye on incoming traffic and co-ordinate with your cybersecurity vendors to mitigate any potential attack.

2. Zero-Day Vulnerability Exploits

The zero-day exploit was first founded in 2014, but it started getting sophisticated as time passed, making them one of the dangerous exploits to date. Though the concept isn’t new, and the advancing technology also gets affected due to advancing knowledge of cybercrooks who find new ways to find such attacks.

It’s an attack that happens once the software or hardware vulnerability flaw is exploited, and attackers infect it through malware before any developer detects and patch that vulnerability. These days, cybercrimes are sophisticated and advanced, which makes such an attack more dangerous than earlier.

So, it’s recommended to stay prepared for such attacks further by staying alert about vulnerability and patching it as soon as you find any. Even if your company doesn’t have any dedicated IT team, you should assign such responsibility to someone who can monitor and deploy patches as soon as possible.

3. Sophisticated Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware attacks are increasing as the year passes by. It’s a business for cyber crooks, which is getting bigger as the technology is advancing. Despite awareness towards it, Ransomware gets more sophisticated and aggressive.

Loaded with advanced AI technology, next-generation Ransomware can smoothly evade malware detection programs and can spread within an organization’s network. It’ll be a menace in 2021 as well, due to which it’s recommended to stay alert on this attack as well.

Though ransomware attacks are quite difficult to prevent due to increasing cybercrimes, it’s also easy to mitigate by keeping regular backups of your organization’s sensitive data, applications, and system. So, if you or your organization machine ever gets infected by such an attack, you can easily overcome it without paying any ransom.

4. Insider Threats

As much malware and other threats are becoming an issue. Much trusted insider is becoming too, both malicious and negligent insiders. An insider threat is a malicious threat towards an organization from working within an organization such as former employees, business associates, or contractors who have information regarding organizations’ security methods, networks, and data.

Due to COVID-19, many employees had lost their job and had cuts on their paychecks. So, insider threats can become one of the major issues that can continue in 2021. Though it’s quite difficult to avoid insider threats, comprehensive cybersecurity solutions can help certain situations. However, it’s not a full-proof protection mechanism against someone determined to harm, but it can prove beneficial to avoid such situations that can be created by any negligence.

5. Social Media Disinformation and Spoof Accounts

Among the pool of cyberthreats, fake social media accounts and fake information is another emerging issue that everyone has to be careful of nowadays and even in this coming 2021. It’s among those soft threats that can prove threatening for your organization and can even ruin the reputation by spreading fake information.

It’s best to keep an eye on such misinformation on social media and immediately address it by blocking that account and reporting the post if you found any.

6. Phishing Attack

Phishing is one of the social engineering attacks that’s happening for many years, and this 2021 won’t be different. As technology is increasing that much such phishing attacks become successful. In a phishing attack, attackers try to imitate the legit company and trick users into providing their credentials.

Often convincing and real emails popups on the user’s email address, for example, an email from your bank that due to certain reason your account is on hold and to unblock it click the link and login into it. It’s one of the notorious tricks where attackers send an email that looks so convincing and real that many users fall into it.

Without a doubt, this will continue in the coming years, and to overcome its best, users educate themselves and don’t fall into such traps as one-click on a link can prove harmful.

7. SQL Injection Attack

SQL injection, also called SQLI, is another common attack that will be seen further in 2021. In this attack, cybercriminals use SQL code for manipulating back-end databases to access information that is supposed to stay hidden from users—for example, sensitive data of the organization or private customer details.

To avoid such a situation and to stay safe, it’s recommended that you use an intrusion detection system. For example, IDs are designed for detecting unauthorized access to a system. The firewall and router both are used together. Also, it’s suggested that you take validation of the user-supplied data. For instance, codes that can identify any illegal user inputs. Such a validation process proves helpful in verifying whether the supplied input should be allowed or not.

8. Crypto Jacking

Crypto-jacking often called crypto mining, is another cyber threat that everyone should watch out for in 2021. It hides on a computer or smartphone and uses resources to “mine” called cryptocurrencies. It’s a cyber-threat done using online ads and JavaScript code that executes once it loads in the victim’s browser.

And the worst part is that it remains undetected most of the time as the only sign is a delay in the execution. However, it’s best to keep all your security app updated with the latest versions as crypto-jacking is more prone to those systems that often remain unprotected.

9. Watering Hole Attack

It’s another cyber threat that can be seen in the coming 2021. In a watering hole attack, the victim belongs to a specific group. It could be of an organization, region, or so on. This cyber crook targets the website frequently used by certain groups of people belonging to certain regions, cities, and organizations. First, they identify the website by making a wild guess, and sometimes they even closely monitor the group of people who frequently visit it.

Further, to prevent this cyberattack, it’s suggested that you keep your software updated so it doesn’t stay vulnerable to any exploit, regularly check for security patches, and make use of network security tools that helps to detect watering hole attacks. For preventing this attack further, you can also make use of a VPN solution that helps to keep your internet activity private.

Summary

2020 has already been a rough year. It’s recommended that people stay vigilant with their cybersecurity strategy for the coming 2021, as cyber attackers are not bothered about the world’s worsening situations. They’ll carry on with their attacks. They’ve done it in 2020, and it’ll happen further, too.

It’s no brainer to say that you won’t stop attacks from happening, but you can make sure that you take enough precautions that you don’t become victim to such attacks. Lastly, here we’ve mentioned 9 cybersecurity threats that you can stay aware of and make the proper security-related decision based upon it.

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