What are the Risks of Emerging Technologies in Cyber Security? 

Technological advancements help push society forward, making our lives safer and more convenient while increasing our overall quality of life. In some cases, new technology saves lives: allowing us to grow better quality food in higher quantities, make water drinkable, and cure diseases. 

However, emerging technologies in cyber security are a double-edged sword as they come with new cyber threats. Unfortunately, there are always malicious actors ready to exploit the security flaws in digital innovations – and people’s lack of understanding of how emerging technologies work  – for their financial gain. Consequently, organisations become aware of emerging technology cyber risks and develop appropriate strategies for their mitigation.  

With this in mind, let’s explore some of the most prominent emerging cybersecurity risks to look out for and how they can impact your organisation.  

How has technology advanced cybersecurity threats? 

There are two main ways that technology has advanced cyber threats: by increasing the amount of sensitive data that malicious actors can access and by enabling more elaborate and complex cyber attacks.  

Firstly, the more digital solutions that we introduce, the more data that must be generated and processed. As this exponentially increasing amount of information is transferred across the internet, processed by applications and services, and stored on servers, it presents more opportunities for malicious actors to steal, damage, or compromise digital assets and data. However, with data now stored online, as opposed to in filing cabinets, etc., malicious actors can exploit vulnerabilities in your company’s network infrastructure from anywhere in the world – instead of having to breach your physical premises, as was the case in the past. 

However, as technology advances, it gives cybercriminals additional and better means to execute attacks. Cryptocurrency, as just one example, allowed for the introduction of ransomware, which malicious actors use to seize control of a device – and request a ransom in crypto (like Bitcoin) to maintain their anonymity. Additionally, as emerging cybersecurity technology is developed to combat the efforts of malicious actors, they unleash increasingly sophisticated attacks to get past cyber defence measures and achieve their desired objectives; it’s an arms race.  

Plus, it’s important to remember that more platforms mean more opportunities for malicious actors to reach people, just as they did with the introduction of email, text messaging, and social media. As we venture into more virtual spaces, like the Metaverse – heralded by the release of new consumer electronic products like the Oculus Quest and Apple Vision Pro – cybercriminals will find a way to exploit unsuspecting victims there too, so emerging technologies in cybersecurity will have to keep pace. 

Top emerging cybersecurity risks to look out for 

Let’s look at 7 of the most important emerging technology cyber risks organisations must be aware of.   

Businesses data breaches 

Businesses embrace new digital solutions because they help to increase productivity and efficiency, reduce costs, and provide an advantage in an increasingly competitive landscape. However, the more emerging technologies a company adds to its IT infrastructure and incorporates into its workflows, the greater the probability of a data breach. The overarching reason for this is that new technology increases the amount of stored and processed data, increasing a company’s risk exposure by making them a more enticing target for cybercriminals.  

Depending on its nature and severity, the effect of a data breach on your business could be catastrophic. You may have to limit – or even temporarily cease – normal business operations to contain the breach, incurring financial losses. Worse, if some of the data lost in the breach was customer or supply chain partners’ personally identifiable information (PII), you may have to compensate them.  

Additionally, depending on your company’s scope of operations and industry, you must comply with various data privacy legislation, such as GDPR, SOC2, and HIPAA. Subsequently, if you’re found not to be compliant with required legislation when you suffer a data breach, your organisation will be subject to fines and, potentially, other punitive measures. Accounting for this, new digital solutions also increase compliance risk for companies – which emerging cybersecurity technology must address.  

Internet of Things (IoT) vulnerabilities 

The exponential increase in the use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices presents a considerable challenge for emerging cybersecurity technology to overcome. IoT devices feature embedded sensors that enable them to connect to and communicate with other devices over the internet, which can increase the size of an organisation’s network and, consequently, its attack surface. Experts estimate that over 30 billion IoT devices will be in operation worldwide by 2025, potentially equating to trillions of sensors processing data. 

This is worsened by the fact that some IoT devices are likely to go unpatched – so inherent security flaws aren’t addressed and remain an attack vector for hackers. This could be because updating specific IoT devices is difficult and/or inconvenient, or they lack the computational capacity to feature sufficient cybersecurity measures altogether.    

Artificial intelligence (AI) 

With the rapid rise of AI applications, like ChatGPT, and market leaders like Google and Microsoft committing billions of dollars in investment, artificial intelligence (AI) is undoubtedly the tech story of 2024. Unsurprisingly, cybercriminals have already learned how to use AI for malicious purposes, such as identifying companies with weak cybersecurity controls, quickly scanning network infrastructure to pinpoint vulnerabilities, and locating where sensitive data is most likely to be stored.  

Additionally, we’ve already seen cybercriminals effectively utilise AI in social engineering campaigns, e.g., being used to generate large batches of phishing emails –  which are getting consistently better at evading email filters. More alarmingly, however, we’re also starting to see AI programs themselves successfully impersonating humans to achieve an objective. A worrying example of this is the recent case of a generative text AI hiring someone to complete a CAPTCHA on a website – that’s put in place to prove someone isn’t a robot.  

In response, emerging cybersecurity technology must fight proverbial fire with fire and effectively make use of AI. For instance, automated cybersecurity solutions utilising machine learning (ML) algorithms can analyse far more data in real-time than humans can. More importantly, they can better detect behavioural patterns associated with malicious activity for faster and more efficient mitigation of cyber threats.  

With organisations starting to realise the potential for cybercriminals to use artificial intelligence against them and, consequently, the importance of incorporating them into their own cyber risk mitigation strategies, the global market for emerging technologies in cybersecurity solutions powered by AI is predicted to reach $93.75 billion, worldwide, by 2030. 

Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks 

Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks see a hacker inject malicious code into a trusted website or web application. Typically, the first step of an XSS attack is for a hacker to inject a script into a site. However, the website must be susceptible to XSS attacks through a lack of data sanitisation, i.e., dealing with strings that could be processed as code. Once their script is inserted, the hacker can assume control of the site, which includes presenting malicious content like phishing pop-ups. 

Alternatively, XSS attacks can involve a cybercriminal sending a link to a victim to entice them to click it. Upon doing so, the malicious link will execute the attacker’s code on the victim’s browser, giving them control over their session and the ability to redirect them to pages of their choosing.  

XSS attacks have consistently featured in the OWASP (Online Worldwide Application Security Project) top ten, a renowned list of web application security concerns, since its inception in 2003. Fortunately, several emerging technologies, such as cybersecurity monitoring tools and vulnerability scanners, can test if your website is susceptible to XSS attacks and efficiently remediate the threat.   

Cryptojacking 

With cryptocurrencies skyrocketing in prominence and value in the last decade, cryptojacking is another risk factor emerging cybersecurity technology must mitigate. A combination of crypto and hi-jacking, cryptojacking sees a malicious actor install crypto mining software on a victim’s device without their knowledge so that they can siphon its computational power. The malicious actor can then mine crypto without the associated costs, i.e., computational resources and electricity.  

Cryptojacking strains a company’s resources to lower productivity and raise costs, which includes slowing down devices, overheating hardware, and increasing electricity bills. Additionally, if deployed to a cloud environment, cryptojacking software could deplete an organisation’s subscribed resources and increase its cloud computing expenditure. 

Mobile cyber threats 

With an estimated 60% of users accessing the internet on mobile devices globally, many emerging technologies are developed for smartphones and tablets. Consequently, many emerging technology risks apply to mobile devices, including:   

• Mobile malware: malicious software, such as viruses, Trojans, and adware, explicitly designed for mobile devices. Mobile malware could be installed through phishing, website spoofing, or downloading insecure apps. Mobile malware is an especially potentially severe threat for companies with bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, as a mobile device can easily infect the rest of the network with malware.  

• Insecure Wi-Fi networks: if a mobile user connects to an unencrypted Wi-Fi network, they could fall prey to a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack in which a malicious actor hacks the network connection and intercepts their communications. Similarly, network spoofing sees a cybercriminal set up fake Wi-Fi hotspots where they phish for sensitive data by asking you to create a free account to get online. Subsequently, as users often default to the same email and password combination for several sites, cybercriminals can use them to log on elsewhere.   

• Data leakage: instances in which malicious actors gain unauthorised access to sensitive data on a mobile device. This can occur due to the two cyber threats mentioned directly above and from poorly designed apps that inadvertently expose a user’s private information.  

• SIM swapping: a social engineering scheme in which a criminal impersonates you to obtain a replacement SIM card. A malicious actor will first have to acquire some of your PII, e.g., phone number, payment details, likely answers to common security questions, etc. (which, as mentioned above, they could collect from an unsecured Wi-Fi connection). They’ll then call your network provider, claim your SIM was lost or stolen, and request a replacement – granting them access to your messages, call history, etc. 

• SIM cloning: SIM cloning sees a hacker take your SIM, copy the information to a blank SIM, and impersonate you as they would with a SIM swap. As SIM cloning is a sophisticated cyberattack, its usually reserved for high-value targets, e.g., government officials or company senior executives.  

Insider threats 

An insider threat refers to a cyber risk factor from within your organisation rather than out of it. An example of an insider threat that first comes to mind for many is corporate espionage: where a company employee (or someone posing as an employee steals valuable data and hands it to a competitor. Similarly, a disgruntled employee could delete, damage, or otherwise compromise important company assets and data on their way out the door. 

However, not all insider threats have malicious intent behind them – they could be accidental – and, ultimately, the results could still be as damaging. For instance, an employee could fall victim to a phishing scam and unintentionally divulge information, leading to a data breach. Alternatively, someone may accidentally alter sensitive data, make an unsecured copy of a data set, access data they weren’t supposed to, etc. 

Protect your organisation from emerging technology cyber risk with RiskXchange

Riskxchange can help you identify how the recent incorporation of emerging technologies into your IT infrastructure has increased your cyber risk exposure and how to mitigate it best. Additionally, we can develop cybersecurity strategies in conjunction with your organisation’s IT roadmap to minimise the risks accompanying digital innovation. 

Contact us to schedule your free trial.   

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