What Your Business Needs to Know

The 2024 cyber security landscape for businesses continues to see significant shifts, from ever more sophisticated artificial intelligence powered attacks to a proliferation of IoT (Internet of Things) devices and vulnerabilities.    

Though businesses can’t prevent every cyber-attack, staying informed of the latest cyber trends is critical in maintaining a resilient cyber posture.

In this article we will look at some of trends that businesses need to be aware of to stay cyber secure in 2024.

AI Powered Phishing and Social Engineering

AI powered tools will continue to evolve and be adopted by more and more organisations. At the same time AI and LLM (Large Language Model) generated threats such as prompt injection, misinformation, deepfakes and social engineering vectors, including phishing emails are predicted to increase and become harder to spot. Consequently, we will likely see a greater number of significant data breaches. To read more about the basics of phishing visit our phishing 101 guide.

Read our previous articles on the risks of AI and ChatGPT to learn more.  

Deep Fake Technology Advances

Deepfake Technology is advancing rapidly. It is already possible for attackers to create a deepfake of an organisation’s CEO instructing their employees to visit a malicious URL or download ransomware as part of phishing attacks. Voice deepfakes (also called voice-spoofing) can be used in identity theft by taking control of a customer’s bank account or payment fraud by closely imitating their voice. According to a Statista survey of global consumers, 43 percent said they would not be able to tell the difference between a deepfake video and a real video.

As attackers capabilities with deepfake technology increases so does the risk to a business’s financial stability, reputation and the trust of clients and partners.

Increasing Hacktivist and State Sponsored Threats

State backed cyber-attacks continued to increase in 2023 and will do so in 2024, in what is an increasingly tense and un-predictable geopolitical landscape. Both the US Government and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NSCS) have warned about the threat of attacks against the nation’s most critical infrastructure, from the energy industry to transport, communications, and the financial sector. In particular, the NCSC has observed the emergence of a new class of cyber adversary who are often sympathetic to Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine and are ideologically, rather than financially, motivated. Upcoming events such as 2024 Olympics and Euros presents further opportunities for malicious actors to exploit.

IoT Cyber Attacks 

With a rise in the use of interconnected IoT (internet of Things) devices, from temperature controls to smart vehicles, the need for robust security protocols has also risen greatly. This includes effective authentication protocols, the integration of advanced encryption techniques, implementation of stringent access controls and regular software updates.  

Supply Chain Attacks

Weakly protected supply chains remain a target for cyber criminals. One of 2023’s biggest attacks involved a vulnerability in the file-transfer application Moveit. A ransomware attack by the Clop group cost 9.9 billion to business worldwide, affecting 60 million people and over 1000 companies, including international airlines and large retailers. The success of this attack will very likely encourage cyber criminals to identify more vulnerabilities within other widely used applications and use this to disrupt more business operations in 2024. The Moveit attack also demonstrates the urgent need for businesses to carry out regular third-party audits, risk assessments and penetration testing to identify their vulnerable endpoints and mitigate accordingly.  

SAAS and Cloud Service Vulnerabilities

As businesses continue to transfer their data to the cloud, securing cloud environments will be a top priority. This will require cloud-native security solutions and practices. Encryption, identity management, and continuous monitoring will play key roles in protecting sensitive data stored in the cloud. 

How to Protect Your Business against Cyber Threats  

Take Action 

Cybersecurity remains an integral element of business sustainability. By integrating the latest cyber security threats in their overall cyber strategy, businesses are better prepared to recover from a future data breach and avoid damaging downtime.  

We also strongly recommend that businesses implement common cyber hygiene and best practice, such as strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, regular updates, and patching, and user access controls. As a long-standing certification body our experts can help your business achieve basic cyber security controls with a Cyber Essentials accreditation.  

Next Steps 

PureCyber’s full range of cyber security solutions, including penetration testing services, phishing simulations, 24/7 SOC (Security Operation Centre) monitoring and certification, offer a fully integrated cyber security solution. To see our subscription packages for all sizes of business click here.  

Work with us today on your journey to cyber resilience in 2024 by clicking the contact button below.  

 Sources

www.ncsc.co.uk