The Biggest Security Threats We’ll Face in 2015
A recent Wired.com article is predicting the biggest security threats we will face this year, and it is anything but comforting to the public. New, trending attacks like ‘extortion’ and ‘data destruction’ attacks are becoming more prominent, while the ever present bank card breaches still remain. Every single piece of information about you is important to hackers and identity thieves. Need any more reason to stop sharing everything on facebook?
As the article points out, the biggest security threats will be:
-Nation State Attacks
-Extortion
-Data Destruction
-Bank Card Breaches
-Third Party Breaches
-Critical Infrastructure
The recent Sony Pictures hack highlighted two of these types of attacks–Extortion and Data Destruction. The attackers behind the Sony attack did not just steal data, they deleted it and wiped the systems. This forces those without good backups to completely reboot and rebuild their systems. The extortion came into play as the attackers demanded that Sony not release The Interview.
While sophisticated malware and ‘hacktivists’ are not our area of expertise, there is one threat here we are particularly interested in; As expected, bank card breaches are expected to continue this year, but the switch to the new EMV cards is currently in progress and hopes to drastically reduce these types of breaches. Still, the article alludes to the fact that nothing is impenetrable and in 2015 hackers may focus more of their attention on how to obtain information stored on EMV cards, though it is much harder to do than on traditional swipe cards.
The article states:
“Card issuers and retailers are moving to adopt more secure EMV or chip-‘n’-PIN cards and readers, which use an embedded microchip that generates a one-time transaction code on in-store purchases and a customer-entered PIN that makes stolen data less useful to card thieves. As a result, card breaches like this are expected to decline. But it will take a while for chip-‘n’-PIN systems to be widely adopted…There’s also a problem with poor implementation; cards stolen in the recent Home Depot hack show that hackers were able to exploit chip-‘n’-PIN processing systems because they were poorly implemented. With the shift to EMV cards, hackers will simply shift their focus. Instead of going after retailers for card data they’ll simply target card processors that handle payroll accounts.”
As stated by computer security expert Avi Rubin, “all your devices can be hacked.” It seems like hackers will always be around, and the smartest thing to do is protect ourselves (and our wallets) the best way we can. A new EMV card (whether it is RFID enabled or not) stored inside a durable Flipside 3X Wallet is a strong combination for security. The card and its embedded chips will not be scanned, harmed or crushed and you can be assured you have a very formidable secret weapon in the war against card theft.
To read the original Wired.com article, click below:
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/security-predictions-2015/
Stay Safe and Secure,
-Team Flipside
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