By Alisdair Faulkner, ThreatMetrix
The breadth and depth of the data breaches seen by the world in 2014 was shocking — spanning many industries and exposing hundreds of millions of usernames, passwords and credit card details. The coming year will be no different, and businesses and consumers need to be prepared for continued changes in the cybercrime landscape.
To help businesses avoid falling victim to 2015 data breaches and other attacks, and to educate consumers about growing cybercrime threats, they need to be aware of several predictions for the New Year:
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- Mobile Will Represent More Than Half Of Transactions During The 2015 Holiday Season: During this year’s Cyber Week, mobile accounted for 39% of all transactions across the ThreatMetrix Global Trust Intelligence Network (The Network). By next year, I predict this number will surpass 50%. As retailers make the switch to EMV payments systems by the October 2015 deadline, those systems will also accept capabilities like Apple Pay, which will contribute to increased mobile payments.
Unfortunately, many retailers face difficulties determining the authenticity of mobile transactions through hidden cookies and geo-location data. Leveraging a global network of cybercrime intelligence enables retailers to differentiate between good users and potential fraudsters and will be the best way to protect customers in 2015.
- Information Sharing Will Continue To Rise: While cybercrime threats will grow in sophistication during the coming year, information sharing about those threats will also grow to combat those cybercriminals. For example, the retail industry is already paving the way for growth of information sharing with the Retail Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Retail-ISAC), but there is still room for improvement.
Unfortunately, while information sharing is common practice in some industries, businesses in other industries are often wary of sharing too much information with competitors. However, with today’s highly organized cybercriminals, it takes a network to fight a network. The balance is between businesses sharing good data, not just big data, and maintaining a certain level of trust to stay competitive with one another.
- Cybercriminals Will Identify New Opportunities To Compromise Personal Information: In 2014, there were many high profile data breaches that were deemed “unprecedented.” Hundreds of millions of user accounts have been compromised, including the Home Depot breach and the Russian cybercrime ring exposing 1.2 billion passwords. Most recently, the Sony breach has been a sign of cybercriminals shifting their focus to cyber sabotage.
There are endless opportunities for hackers to steal personal information, and that’s not going to stop in the coming year — it’s going to get worse. In fact, in 2015, it’s very possible that one of the world’s major stock exchanges could be compromised, which has the potential to result in severe economic damage on a global basis.
- The Internet Of Things Will Continue To Be A Security Nightmare: One of the first major hacks to the Internet of Things came in early January. It can be near impossible to know when one of the many connected devices used day-to-day is compromised — from smartphones to washing machines and refrigerators — and as more devices are added to the Internet of Things in the next year, protecting these devices will become even more difficult.
One of the biggest problems is that many of these tools have a long lifespan and current security systems rely heavily on the ability to patch systems on a regular basis. For most of the devices within the Internet of Things, that practice is not implemented, nor feasible.
While companies continue to find new ways to protect their business and customers, cybercriminals are also hard at work finding new ways to target them. Through continued information sharing within the retail industry and other industries, businesses can continue to grow their network and combat cyber attacks in 2015.
Alisdair Faulkner is a technology entrepreneur who has nearly two decades of experience building products and delivering mission critical technologies that are run by the world’s most trusted brands. As Chief Products Officer and Co-Founder at ThreatMetrix, he is responsible for product management and strategy. Prior to ThreatMetrix, Faulkner was a founder and head of products and business development for NetPriva, a leading network performance software provider, acquired by Expand Networks now Riverbed.
