Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2018. Read them in this 10th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Contributed by Michael Klatt, VP of Research and Development and Sean McNee, Senior Data Scientist, DomainTools
Ransomware and DDoS on the Move
The
rise of cryptocurrencies has paved the way for an exponential rise in
ransomware this past year. The perpetrators, who take over an organization's or
individual's computer system and hold it ransom until a sum of money is paid,
are protected by the anonymity of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and
Ethereum. According to a recent DomainTools survey of business and security
executives, ransomware is the number one security concern keeping them up at
night. The main reason a third of organizations are fearful of these attacks is
the fact that hackers are becoming increasingly savvy. Concerns about impacts
to brand reputation, financial damage and potential intellectual property loss
also top of list of worries.
Another
malicious threat to everyday systems, DDoS attacks, are expected to continue to
compromise businesses without discrimination in the coming year. While these
incidents typically target the systems of larger corporations such as Trump
Hotels, our DomainTools Research experts expect growth in "down-markets" as
well as an increase in strength and prevalence overall.
DomainTools' VP of Research and
Development, Michael Klatt and Senior Data Scientist, Sean McNee provide
insight on what we can expect with ransomware
and DDoS in 2018:
"Cryptocurrency
was a "killer app" and enabled and fueled the growth of ransomware and related
ransom threats in 2017.
This
will continue to grow in 2018 to include holding identities for ransom. Users
will receive emails or phone calls telling them that their SSNs and other
information has been compromised (with evidence) and then instructed to pay via
bitcoin to prevent the data from being leaked." - Michael Klatt, VP of Research
and Development
"As the large-scale ransomware attacks this
year showed, many organizations are vulnerable. In 2018, there will be an
increase in smaller players getting in on this action by attacking smaller
institutions. Expect ransomware, DDOS, and phishing campaigns to target not
critical infrastructure, but smaller banks, corporations, and universities.
These should be easy to block, but volumes will grow dramatically and will
over-burden SOCs." - Sean McNee, Senior Data Scientist
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About the Authors
MICHAEL KLATT, VP OF RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT
Michael joined DomainTools in 2005
and helped develop the back-end systems powering many of DomainTools' most
popular products. He managed Engineering for 4 years before moving to his new
role in R&D in 2012, where he focuses on exploring new technical
opportunities & solutions. Michael is an expert in DNS and has deep
experience with the collection and processing of Big Data.
SEAN MCNEE, SENIOR DATA SCIENTIST
Sean has a Ph.D. in Computer and
Information Sciences from the University of Minnesota. His research and
business efforts focus on the creation of actionable insights in support of
critical decision- making through the use of new technologies and workflows over
corporate & Internet networking data.