The increase in Internet of Things (IoT) deployments means that cyber-security risk is distributed more widely than ever. This is the word from Keagan Ackerman, territory account manager at Eset, who points out that IoT is now being used to control things like light, thermostats and health devices.“This means there is a lot more personal information in the cloud,” he warns, adding that privacy could be the first victim of IoT attacks.
There are already about 6,4-billion IoT devices connected, and this is expected to grow to 20,8-billion by 2021.
Significantly, Internet-enabled toys on their own have the potential to expose up to 6,4-million children and 4,9-million of their parents to privacy breaches.
“Even the Webcam on your laptop could be used to record your conversations,” Ackerman points out.
Phishing is still a big security threat in South Africa. “People still click on links in e-mail,” he says. “And phishing is rife at the moment.”
The rapidly increasing amount of data that is stored in the cloud is becoming real security threat, Ackerman says. “It is important to ensure that information is locked down.”
Ransomware has become one of the biggest threats in 2016, and is set to continue its rise in 2017. “We saw a 600% increase in ransomware attacks this year,” Ackerman says. The fact the cyber-crooks can buy ransomware quite easily on the Dark Web argues that the attacks will continue, he adds.
Although ransomware attacks mostly PCs, it is also becoming reasonably common on Android devices as well.