The security company warns of a new era of cyber attacks.
The security company Fortinet tells in its forecast what kind of cyberthreats the world will face in 2025. Graeme Roy
According to the information security company Fortinet, many cybercriminals are making better attacks than before, which is not a good thing at all. In addition, the old means of protection may not be enough when criminals find new ways to attack.
The company’s Fortiguard Labs team has compiled an updated threat forecast report for the year 2025, which underlines that cyber attacks will become more targeted and harmful, for example, as turnkey cyber attack services become more common.
Specialization
According to Fortinet, one of the biggest threats is related to the fact that cybercriminals are spending more time than before on the steps before the actual attack, i.e. on intelligence and weaponizing intelligence information, increasingly specializing in a certain phase of the attack chain.
Fortinet says this makes the attacks themselves more precise and effective, with criminals using even fewer so-called omnipresent planers.
The themes are cloud and artificial intelligence
According to Fortinet, information security experts must pay more attention to protecting various cloud environments in the future than before. Many companies and organizations rely more and more firmly on various cloud-based platforms in their operations, so the interest of cybercriminals in them and the predicted increase in the number of attacks is not surprising in Fortinet’s opinion.
Fortinet’s researchers also estimate that the use of artificial intelligence will become significantly more common in cyber attacks. It predicts that attackers can, for example, create an automated and easy-to-use phishing tool based on information obtained from social media.
Real life threats part of tactics
There is also a fear of hitting critical infrastructure, for example by manipulating the control systems of power grids. Experts estimate that such cyber-attacks using real-life threats will become more common.
– In addition, some cybercriminals have already been found to threaten the management and employees of organizations, and this type of activity is believed to become a regular part of the playbook of many threat actors, Fortinet says in its release.
Fortinet reminds us that the responsibility for taking care of information security belongs to everyone, not only the information security and IT teams of companies.
– No single organization or information security team can prevent cybercrime on their own, he underlines.