Past few years have given us enough examples of highly destructive cyber security attacks that successfully invaded the sophisticated information technology infrastructures. Cyber attacks like Equifax breach and WannaCry in the year 2017 proved that today’s cybercriminals have become technically proficient and well equipped with advanced technological tools to initiate more disastrous attacks and breaches in days to come.

With Internet of Things (IoT) gaining immense traction at homes and in businesses, it might act as a pathway for these hackers to have network accessibility. Consequently, 2018 can expect immensely devastating cyber attacks. However, there are few predictive ways to be prepared to keep these threats at bay.

Machine learning and AI can prove to be more effective to develop models to identify anomalous behaviors. Although AI can be a reason for major security breaches, if used positively, it can also be beneficial to build secured infrastructures and alert the users. Its efficiency depends on the design of the algorithm of the dataset from both sides. Cryptocurrency can be another area of concern.

The year 2017 saw the rise of cryptocurrency, and alongside escalated interest of the criminal hackers to breach Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to take over capital to buy tokens. Thereby, cryptocurrencies can be potential threats to cybersecurity. Finally, smartphones—just with a few clicks are generating and collecting a tremendous amount of personal data. Though the data are encrypted, these smartphones have their own limitations, opening doors for hackers to decrypt the information and carry out personal damages.  

These are a few areas where attacks can take place, this year. Though the method of attacks is not quite predictable but considering these areas of attacks, businesses can prepare themselves for the future.