E-Business
10 Cyber Security Trends to Watch in 2019
Biometric hacking, an increase in phishing attacks and sophisticated use of artificial intelligence (AI) are among the top cyber security threats to be expected in 2019, as attackers stop at nothing to steal identities and evade detection through new techniques.
- Attacks through theft of biometric data
While several major leaks of biometric data have already occurred globally, the Middle East and Africa regions could see the first attacks in the theft and use of biometric data in 2019, according to Kaspersky Lab.
“As more biometric systems for user identification and authentication are being implemented by various financial institutions in META (Middle East, Turkey and Africa), 2019 will see criminals exposing vulnerabilities in passcodes, touch ID sensors and facial recognition,” says Fabio Assolini, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab.
“While many financial organisations consider these emerging biometric-based solutions to improve security over current authentication methods, biometric data will increasingly be used to steal sensitive information.”
- AI and machine learning make attacks harder to detect
Manuel Corregedor, COO at Telspace Systems, says 2019 will see more advanced exploitation of AI to carry out and conceal new exploits.
“I believe we will see an increase in attackers utilising AI and machine learning as a means to make their attacks more difficult to detect or prevent,” says Corregedor.
However, AI will also change the way the industry deals with threats.
Brian Pinnock, cyber security specialist at Mimecast, says AI and machine learning will play a more prominent role as the velocity and variety of attacks makes conventional approaches – such as blacklists – outdated and ill-equipped to deal with modern cyber threats.
“Organisations will realise the importance of threat intelligence and will focus on the need for an ‘intelligence function’ to identify threats,” says Pinnock.
- Phishing scams to soar
As e-mail attacks grow more frequent and complex, more organisations will be left scrambling for new ways to reduce risk and better detect and remediate threats in 2019.
Pinnock says throughout 2019, the most insidious development won’t be new attack types, but, rather, improved execution of existing attack types, especially those delivered via e-mail.
“Phishing techniques like the use of homoglyphs, elongated URLs, legitimate certifications (green lock), and credetial-harvesting sites will increase. Flawless phishes will continue to prey on the gap in human firewalls, pivoting internally around organisations and intensifying efforts to better educate all staff.”
Dr Jabu Mtsweni, research group leader for cyber defence at the Council for Industrial and Scientific Research (CSIR), points out that phishing scams are still quite popular as cyber security awareness remains low.
“Denial-of-service attacks on government Web sites were also popular in 2018. This includes injection of malware on government Web sites that remain undetected. In 2019, malicious e-mail and links will continue to be used by criminals to get access to organisations’ networks.”
- Fake videos bring a new era of fake news
UK-based innovation foundation Nesta forecasts that 2019 will see a new level of malicious posts on social media as fake videos set the next stage in fake news.
Lifelike computer-generated graphics – appearing to show video footage of events that never really happened – will be used to mislead the public.
“We predict that within the next 12 months, the world will see the release of highly authentic-looking malicious fake videos, which could cause substantial damage to diplomatic relations between countries,” says Nesta. “Deepfakes, a new AI-based technology that makes it possible to create fake videos of individuals nearly indistinguishable from the real thing, will make this possible.”
The innovation foundation believes that Deepfakes have the potential to spark a geo-political incident if a politician or celebrity is maliciously impersonated.
- Improved execution of existing attack types
In 2018, cyber attacks and data breaches continued to increase in both frequency and intensity, and organisations can expect more of the same in 2019, according to experts.
Corregedor points out that the biggest cyber security event of 2018 is probably just the sheer number of data breaches that have occurred across industry sectors, some utilising advanced attacks, others as a result of mistakes made by the affected organisations.
Over 4.5 billion data records were compromised worldwide in the first half of 2018, according to Gemalto’s latest Breach Level Index.
Pinnock points out that better social engineering, increases in credential stuffing attacks, and more complicated malware with multiple stages and different form factors for transmission will make threats incredibly tricky to detect in 2019.
“With global cyber crime organisations growing in maturity and sophistication, many are now acquiring capabilities that were once the sole reserve of nation states,” notes Pinnock
“We’re likely to see these cyber criminals use stolen credentials from the past few years’ data breaches to compromise the security of even the most secure organisations. Even companies with good cyber protection have little protection against the reuse of passwords that have been collected in other breaches.”
- Slight decrease in crypto currency attacks
According to Kaspersky Lab, 2018 saw a rise in the malicious use of crypto currency miners, with virus attacks and malicious software against crypto miners growing almost fourfold.
Kaspersky predicts that crypto currencies as a means of payment will decline further in 2019, and this trend is expected to lead to a slight decline in crypto currency threats.
“In the face of huge commissions, slow transfers, a large price for integration, and, most importantly, a small number of customers, the use of crypto currency as a method of payment has declined steadily from 2017 and will continue to decline in 2019.”
However, those crypto currency threats that do occur will be focused on mining malware, with the intervention of new players and the continuation of the use of ransomware.
“In 2018, the META region became more appealing to cyber criminals, with financial and malicious crypto mining attacks taking centre stage,” notes Assolini.
“Illegal mining of crypto currencies increased dramatically to overtake the main threat of the last few years – ransomware. We believe the reason for this is that mining is silent and causes less impact that ransomware, making it less noticeable.”
- Mobile, in-the-app malware
While malware that runs on the Windows operating system vastly outnumbers malware for any other platform, users of mobile devices are increasingly subject to malicious activity that pushes malware apps to their phones, tablets, or other devices running Android and iOS, according to computer network security company Sophos’ 2019 Threat Report.
For some time, malicious versions of popular apps were predominantly found on third-party app stores. These can be sketchy places, hosting pirated and/or trojaned versions of legitimate apps, notes the report.
Unusual malicious campaigns affecting the Android platform – phishing-in-the-app – can be expected in 2019, warns Sophos.
“In 2018, we discovered one way that criminals can bypass the Play Market’s source code checks was by not including anything malicious in the app itself, but rather by making an app that, in essence, is a browser window to a phishing site. The apps, in this case, were designed in tandem with the phishing site so the user had a seamless experience,” notes the report.
- 5G deployments to fuel threats
A number of 5G network infrastructure deployments kicked off this year, and 2019 is expected to be a year of accelerating 5G activity. While it will take time for 5G networks and 5G-capable phones and other devices to become broadly deployed, experts predict growth will occur rapidly.
According to Symantec’s Cyber Security Predictions: 2019 and Beyond, growing 5G deployments and adoption will expand the cyber-attacks surface area.
“As a stepping stone to broad deployment of 5G cellular networks, some carriers are offering fixed 5G mobile hotspots and 5G-equipped routers for homes. Given the peak data rate of 5G networks is 10 Gbps, the shift to 5G will catalyse new operational models, new architectures, and, consequently, new vulnerabilities.
“Over time, more 5G IoT devices will connect directly to the 5G network rather than via a WiFi router. This trend will make those devices more vulnerable to direct attack.”
- IIoT attacks not slowing down
Industrial IoT (IIoT) attacks through cloud infrastructure and over-reliance on AI in cyber security systems are two critical risks for enterprises in 2019, according to Forcepoint’s 2019 Cyber security Predictions Report.
“In 2019, attackers will break into industrial IoT devices by attacking the underlying cloud infrastructure. This target is more desirable for an attacker – access to the underlying systems of these multi-tenanted, multi-customer environments represents a much bigger payday.”
Three elements expected to play a significant role in the increase of IIoT attacks, according to the report, are: increasing network connectivity to edge computing; the difficulty in securing devices as more compute moves out to the edge; and the exponential number of devices connecting to the cloud for updates and maintenance.
- The rise of SaaS
Gilad Peleg, CEO of cyber security firm SecBI, predicts that in 2019, the model of enterprise software deployed on-premises will gradually disappear as it’s replaced by Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
Many of the resources once in the hands of corporates, like the database, e-mail server, ERP, CRM and others, will all move to the cloud, leaving enterprises vulnerable, he observes.
“SaaS’ greatest advantage is also its greatest weakness. With SaaS, you need much less IT. This is a benefit at first glance, but upon inspection, it becomes a problem – you don’t control the access, or the data. Therefore, you don’t know you were hacked, nor do you have the tools to know,” notes Peleg.
“The security implications here are that organisations will cease to have visibility into the perimeter and all the perimeter’s defences. As enterprises acknowledge, they are left blind by this change, and will thus need new visibility solutions.”
X has announced plans to discontinue its Revenue Sharing programme and introduce a new Original Content Rewards programme to reward creators for producing original content on the platform.
The social media company announced the changes at the weekend in a post on its X Creators handle, saying the new programme would reward creators who contribute original content.
“Today, we’re introducing the Original Content Rewards Program, a new way to reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity, and commentary to X,” the company said.
X said it would stop accepting new enrolments into the Revenue Sharing programme from Friday, while existing participants would continue earning until September 7, 2026.
“Starting today, we’re no longer accepting new enrollments into Revenue Sharing,” it said.
According to the company, existing Revenue Sharing participants will receive three final payouts, with two scheduled for August 14 and August 28, while the final payment for earnings accrued through September 7 is expected around September 11.
X said existing Revenue Sharing participants would begin getting access to apply for the new programme from September 8, subject to meeting its eligibility requirements.
The first payout under the Original Content Rewards programme will be made on August 28, 2026, while existing Revenue Sharing creators who enrol in the new programme from September 8 will receive their first payment on September 25.
Under the new programme, eligible creators will earn from qualified impressions generated by their original content, with payments made every two weeks.
X defined qualified impressions as unique impressions from Premium users on the Home Timeline feed, where at least 50 per cent of a post is visible.
On the other hand, “The following are excluded from qualified impressions: impressions from the same account counted more than once per post; paid, promoted, or artificially generated impressions; and fraudulent impressions,” it said.
To qualify, creators must be at least 18 years old, live in a country where the programme is available, maintain an account in good standing and have either a personal or vusiness account.
They must also subscribe to X Premium, Premium+ or Premium Business, have at least 500 verified followers and record at least 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users within the previous 90 days.
X said creators must also regularly post original content to remain eligible.
“We want to recognize creators who break news, share expertise, tell stories, create entertainment, and contribute meaningful perspectives to the conversation,” the company said.
The platform said original content could include threads, videos, memes, graphics, illustrations, reporting, analysis, commentary and reactions that add meaningful value to existing conversations.
It said creators who use content produced by others would need to add meaningful commentary, context, analysis, humour or creative transformation for such posts to qualify.
“Building on existing conversations is a core part of X, but simply reposting someone else’s content is not enough,” it said.
X said minor edits such as cropping, filters, borders, watermarks, speed adjustments or simple text overlays would generally not qualify as meaningful transformation on their own.
It also warned that content copied or substantially reproduced from another creator, content downloaded and re-uploaded from X or another platform without being the original author’s, automated content, disinformation and misleading content would be ineligible.
The company said accounts that violate the programme’s requirements could be temporarily or permanently removed from it, depending on the severity of the violation.
It added that creators would be responsible for ensuring they had the necessary rights, permissions or licences to use content created by others.
“Original content is content you personally create that reflects your own voice, perspective, expertise, or creativity,” X said.
The company said the new programme was intended to reward creators who make the platform more valuable by bringing original ideas and perspectives to its conversations.
“The Original Content Rewards Program is designed to reward the creators who start them, shape them, and move them forward,” it said.
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has introduced so-called Nigeria’s Certified Cloud Register, regulatory framework developed under the agency’s National Sovereign Cloud Initiative to determine which cloud providers are authorized to handle sensitive data, such as banking records.
In effect, from October, NITDA requires banks, fintech companies and other regulated organisations to source cloud infrastructure providers from a national register of certified firms approved to host sensitive financial and government data.
The Certified Cloud Register, is expected to strengthen data sovereignty, improve regulatory oversight and support the implementation of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) data localisation policy, which takes effect on January 1, 2027.
Under the framework, banks, fintechs, government institutions and other regulated entities will be able to verify whether cloud service providers, data centre operators, managed service providers and Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure companies have met NITDA’s certification requirements before entrusting them with critical digital workloads.
The initiative is expected to provide regulated institutions with a standardised process for selecting cloud infrastructure providers that satisfy Nigeria’s technical, security and regulatory requirements.
According to NITDA, the framework establishes “a common national standard, an independent assessment process and a public register of approved providers that banks, fintechs and government institutions can rely on when selecting cloud infrastructure partners.”
The register is expected to become a key compliance tool ahead of the CBN’s directive, which requires all payment transaction data generated within Nigeria to be stored and processed locally, effective from January 1, 2027.
The policy applies to deposit money banks, microfinance banks, mobile money operators, payment service providers, switching companies and other financial institutions.
The certification regime is also expected to reshape Nigeria’s cloud computing ecosystem, making regulatory approval a major requirement for cloud providers seeking to handle sensitive data for regulated industries.
Figures cited by NITDA showed that Nigeria’s 10 largest banks spent about N177.91 billion on information technology in the first quarter of 2026, representing a 31 per cent increase over the corresponding period last year.
A sizeable portion of the investment currently supports cloud infrastructure hosted outside Nigeria, a trend the new certification framework is expected to address by encouraging greater utilisation of compliant local infrastructure.
NITDA said the certification programme will apply the same technical and regulatory standards to indigenous cloud providers and international hyperscale operators, creating a level playing field for all companies seeking to provide cloud services to regulated sectors.
The agency also disclosed that more than 85 per cent of Nigerian businesses currently rely on cloud services, with the majority using infrastructure hosted outside the country.
It said the new framework is aimed at improving confidence in Nigeria’s digital infrastructure while promoting local capacity and enhancing oversight of critical national data.
Speaking on the objective of the initiative, Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director-general of NITDA, said the programme is designed to strengthen Nigeria’s position in the global digital economy rather than exclude foreign technology companies.
According to him, the initiative is intended “to redefine the terms under which Nigeria participates in the global digital economy rather than isolate the country from international technology providers.”
The Certified Cloud Register forms part of broader efforts by the Federal Government to deepen digital trust, strengthen cybersecurity and ensure that critical financial and public sector data are managed in line with Nigeria’s evolving data governance and sovereignty objectives.
At the recent Cyber Security Weekend 2026 conference, Kaspersky shared the findings from its survey titled “Cybersecurity in the workplace: Employee knowledge and behaviour” which was conducted among employees from the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region.
The study highlights that everyday IT habits, including decluttering computers and reducing digital fatigue, can have a direct and often underestimated impact on an organisation’s cyber resilience.
The Kaspersky survey points to a growing challenge of digital fatigue in the workplace. 13.5% of employees surveyed in the META region confirmed that they made IT-related mistakes due to a lack of cybersecurity knowledge – a figure that shows the critical importance of continuous cybersecurity training and awareness programmes.
Among other reasons behind IT mistakes, respondents cited being in a hurry (30%), oversight (14%), being tired or stressed (12.9%) and having too many notifications (10%). The constant barrage of alerts, messages, and on-screen clutter is becoming an acute problem that can lead to costly IT errors, overlooked social engineering attacks, and even to cyber breaches.
The survey also examined employees’ digital workspace habits. An overwhelming 44.5% of respondents in the META region reported having between 10 and 20 icons on their desktop, while 30% admitted to having even more – with half to a full screen covered in them.
Meanwhile, 33% of respondents also keep more than 10 tabs open in their browser at any given time. Excessive icons and open tabs do more than distract attention and fuel procrastination – they can slow device performance and, in the case of unused applications, quietly collect data.
Interestingly, most employees regularly disinfect their keyboards and phone surfaces (21.5% have adopted this habit since the COVID pandemic). However, digital cleanliness has not kept pace: 55% of respondents remove needless files once a month or more often; the rest perform digital clean-ups far less frequently – once a quarter, or even once a year.
Managing digital noise is key to staying alert: only essential notifications should remain active, especially during periods of deep focus on critical project deliverables. Regular breaks are just as vital for maintaining both well-being and cyber vigilance.
According to the survey, 78% of respondents spend their work breaks eating or drinking, while 58% chat with friends and colleagues. However, stretching and physical exercise is a more effective way to relieve stress and recharge focus – a habit adopted by only 14% of employees.
“It is important to recognise that digital fatigue is a real and growing stress factor: the constant stream of notifications, cluttered screens, and information overload gradually erode focus and make employees far more susceptible to mistakes and social engineering attacks. Simplifying your digital environment is not just a productivity tip, it is a cybersecurity measure”, says Brandon Muller, senior security consultant for the META region at Kaspersky.
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