Cybersecurity Prediction for 2017

The Threat from Computer Hacker Groups will Increase

“Computer hacker groups will continue to emerge in developing countries around the world, increasing the threat of malicious attacks motivated by religion, politics, and money”

The prediction that the threat from computer hacker groups will increase refers to the number and strength of attacks we will see in the near future because of the growing use of the Internet in developed countries. As more people start using the Internet to feed their special interests, the hacker subculture also advances in numbers and abilities as they continue to share information, techniques, tools, and common objectives.

Pierluigi Paganini, Chief Information Security Officer at Bit4Id, has outlined his predictions in relation to cybersecurity for 2016 and 2017. All of his predictions for 2016 have been fulfilled, including Cyber espionage will be the most serious threat to governments and private businesses, stating “nation-state actors have continued to represent one of the main threats to government and private businesses. In the last twelve months, the number of cyber-attacks aiming to steal sensitive information and intellectual property continued to increase.” Nation-state actors fall into the computer hacker group category with a political motivation, as they are typically hired by their government to carry out espionage, propaganda or outright sabotage through the use of hacking techniques.

Paganini has also cast his predictions for 2017, including Nation State Actors hacking and the urgency of norms of state behavior. This prediction builds on last year’s, but surmises that the detection abilities will also increase, exposing more hacking agendas.

We will be able to watch how this prediction plays out by evaluating attacks by origin, type, and target at http://map.norsecorp.com/#/. This map is a live feed of a threat intelligence network, and while it doesn’t specifically show the motivation for the attacks, we can use the data to speculate motivations based on the current state of affairs within and between borders. 

What are your observations for 2017 so far?


References

Norse Corp. (n.d.). Norse Attack Map. Retrieved August 29, 2017, from http://map.norsecorp.com/#/  

Paganini, P. (2016, December 18). 2017 Cyber Security Predictions. Retrieved August 29, 2017, from http://resources.infosecinstitute.com/2017-cyber-security-predictions/#gref


Taylor, R. W., Fritsch, E. J., & Liederbach, J. (2015). Digital Crime and Terrorism. In Digital crime and digital terrorism (pp. 355-356). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.