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Hackers tap AI to drive more cyber attacks in 2024

In 2023, concern about AI being used for nefarious purposes increased with the unprecedented developmental progress in areas like generative and synthetic AI…reports Asian Lite News

The profitability and the ease with which social engineering-related cyber attacks are launched will drive an even higher volume of these incidents in 2024, a new report showed on Thursday.

A major trend in cybersecurity is the speed and adeptness with which hackers adapt their techniques to take advantage of technological advances, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Attacks leveraging social engineering have become more frequent and more expensive in 2023.

In the new year, cybercriminals will be quick to innovate and expand their use of methods like social engineering, and deceptive practices used to influence people to release sensitive or personal data for illegal purposes.

“Cybercriminals are exploiting the biggest vulnerability within any organization: humans. As progress in AI and analytics continues to advance, hackers will find more inventive and effective ways to capitalize on human weakness in areas of (mis)trust, the desire for expediency, and convenient rewards,” said Amy Larsen DeCarlo, principal analyst, Enterprise Technology and Services, at GlobalData.

In 2023, concern about AI being used for nefarious purposes increased with the unprecedented developmental progress in areas like generative and synthetic AI.

Threat actors can apply AI to change up malware algorithms so quickly that security software doesn’t recognize the potential danger associated with tactics like deepfakes, said the report.

“In 2024, enterprises contending with challenged markets will need to tighten IT budgets. This will jeopardize some cybersecurity investments at a time when organizations can’t afford to not prioritize fortifying their defenses,” said DeCarlo.

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Hacker encrypting data in ransomware attack

Despite this increase, the sector still has one of the lowest data recovery rates, according to the report by Sophos, a global leader in cybersecurity…reports Asian Lite News

More than two-thirds (68 per cent) of manufacturing companies hit by ransomware attacks globally had their data encrypted by hackers, a report showed on Tuesday.

This is the highest reported encryption rate for the sector over the past three years and is in line with a broader cross-sector trend of attackers more frequently succeeding in encrypting data.

However, in contrast to other sectors, the percentage of manufacturing organisations that used backups to recover data has increased, with 73 per cent of the manufacturing firms using backups this year versus 58 per cent in the previous year.

Despite this increase, the sector still has one of the lowest data recovery rates, according to the report by Sophos, a global leader in cybersecurity.

“Using backups as a primary recovery mechanism is encouraging, since the use of backups promotes a faster recovery. While ransom payments cannot always be avoided, we know from our survey response data that paying a ransom doubles the costs of recovery,” said John Shier, field CTO, Sophos.

With 77 per cent of manufacturing organisations reporting lost revenue after a ransomware attack, this added cost burden should be avoided, and priority placed on earlier detection and response, he added.

In addition, despite the growing use of backups, manufacturing and production reported longer recovery times this year.

In 2022, 67 per cent of manufacturing organisations recovered within a week, while 33 per cent recovered in more than a week. This past year, only 55 per cent of manufacturing organisations surveyed recovered within a week.

“Longer recovery times in manufacturing are a concerning development. This extended recovery is negatively impacting IT teams, where 69 per cent report that addressing security incidents is consuming too much time and 66 per cent are unable to work on other projects,” said Shier.

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