Cybersecurity and its risks have developed rapidly in recent years. Emerging technologies are making it easier than ever for hackers, scammers, and fraudsters to infiltrate businesses and take control of customer data. A robust cybersecurity infrastructure can help to alleviate some of the risks, but with increasingly sophisticated hacks and cyber attacks, no business is ever 100% secure. Let’s take a look at some of the current global threats to cybersecurity.

LLMs and malware

Large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, are being used by hackers to generate malware using AI. Avast published a report by the Threat Intelligence Team, saying: “We expect that highly believable and multilingual texts misused for phishing and scams will be leveraged at scale, providing better opportunities for more advanced social engineering.”

A rise in social engineering

According to Darktrace, its researchers found a “135% increase in ‘novel social engineering attacks’”, including phishing attacks, that correlates with the popularity boom of ChatGPT. The generative AI tool allows users to create convincingly human-sounding text from prompts. In a survey conducted by Darktrace and Censuswide, 73% of 1,011 UK employees said they “are concerned that hackers can use generative AI to create scam emails that are indistinguishable from genuine communication”.

Ransomware attacks

Ransomware is software that effectively holds your computer system hostage until money is paid. The software can block access to different parts of your computer system leaving no option but to pay the demand. These attacks are on the rise, and the 2023 State of Ransomware Report from the Malwarebytes Threat Intelligence Team showed that there were 1900 ransomware attacks from July 2022 to June 2023 within the USA, the UK, Germany, and France. The report also found that the USA suffered from 43% of all global attacks.

Lookalike domain attacks

Another way scammers are attacking customers is through lookalike domains. These website and email addresses may look similar to genuine ones, but through a few small differences in wording, punctuation, or fonts, they are subtly different enough to confuse and often catch people out. These attacks are designed to make customers think they are dealing with a reputable company, but in fact, they’re dealing with fraudsters who may be attempting to steal private personal information (PPI) or perform identity theft.

Our three-step cybersecurity solution

Luckily, there are solutions to combat the rise of cybersecurity threats. At Indigo 21 Ltd, we understand that for your customers to feel safe and trust you, you need your assets to be as secure as possible. That’s why we offer a three-step cybersecurity solution to keep your business running smoothly and safely.

1. First, we perform a FREE scan of your digital-facing assets, including your domains, hosts, certificates, and IPs.
2. Second, we prioritise the vulnerabilities to fix and provide you with the best practices on how to fix the problems.
3. Finally, we devise a plan for ongoing management and alerting to cybersecurity threats.

For more information on how you can protect your IT business, get in touch.

Sources

https://cybersecuritynews.com/hackers-using-chatgpt-generate-malware/

https://m.digitalisationworld.com/news/65255/research-reveals-a-rise-in-novel-social-engineering-attacks#:~:text=Darktrace%20research%20reveals%20135%25%20increase,amidst%20widespread%20availability%20of%20ChatGPT

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/threat-intelligence/2023/08/global-ransomware-attacks-at-an-all-time-high-shows-latest-2023-state-of-ransomware-report#:~:text=Ransomware%20attacks%20have%20shown%20no,the%20UK%E2%80%94in%20one%20year