E-Business
Cyberoam Predictions 2015 Reveal 8 Critical IT Security Issues

Cyberoam, a leading global provider of network security appliances has published its Security Predictions for 2015. These predictions give an overview of industry trends and security challenges businesses are likely to come across in 2015.
The Security predictions have been prepared with insights from the Cyberoam Threat Research Labs (CTRL).
The eight (8) predictions made are based on the latest IT trends that closely impact all of us since they co-exist in our personal as well as professional spaces like the Internet of Things, Geo-political interferences, attacks on iOS, newer authentication methods replacing traditional passwords, and more.
New threat trends like malvertising, exploitation of legacy protocols, et al, also share the spotlight among the predictions for 2015. Here are the predictions:
Dark Clouds Over Internet of Things (IOT):
This year IOT will gain wider visibility due to its advancements as well as vulnerabilities.
As SCADA systems adopt IOT, their exposure to cyber threats will increase.
Remotely connected and automated building control systems also face a similar challenge.
Around 2.2 million SCADA and BACnet devices are already exposed to potential cyber-threats as these are identifiable via SHODAN – a search engine for Internet-connected devices.
Meanwhile, government safety requirements such as eCall (Internet assisted emergency reporting in vehicles in Europe) and consumer demand for seamless data connectivity have opened gates for Connected Car infrastructure, which is bringing automakers, telcos and the tech-giants (Google, Samsung & Apple) to a common drawing board.
This is a classic example of IoT at work in our day-to-day lives.
Meanwhile, mobile apps have started featuring in the Connected Car infrastructure and it is just a matter of time before the vulnerabilities are discovered.
Geo-Political Interference
In 2014, the US Department of Homeland Security revealed a trojan named Black Energy affecting the nation’s critical infrastructure. Exploits of Syrian Electronic Army and Regin APT malware campaign also hit headlines.
The Geopolitical landscape is changing dramatically around the world and Internet cannot remain insulated from its effects; in fact Internet has become a critical tool for government sponsored propagandas, espionage and cyber-attacks.
APT malwares sometimes used in these campaigns grossly undermine legal boundaries.
Such malwares were found waiting to be activated in networks of oil and gas pipelines, power transmission grids, water distribution and filtration systems, wind turbines and even some nuclear plants in the US.
In such cases, large private businesses also come in the line of fire every now and then.
If conditions deteriorate, which seems to be a decent probability in the coming year, there will be a larger impetus on cyber-attacks from the nations involved, some of which could be revealed during the year itself.
Legacy Protocols on Target
POODLE, Shellshock and Heartbleed are examples of vulnerabilities in code which sit hidden for years before been discovered and exploited.
The legacy protocols on which Internet seems to run all so well are far from perfect and cyber criminals will continue to exploit the loopholes to their advantage. Some of these protocols being open source face a larger threat.
Moreover, as the Internet makes transition from IPv4 to IPv6, cybercriminals would hunt for latent security gaps.
In addition to the vulnerabilities in web browsers, one can also expect client side attacks exploiting application vulnerabilities in widely used frameworks like Adobe, Java, thereby aggravating network security challenges for IT admins in 2015.
Healthcare Bleeds
Given that healthcare sector is making rapid strides globally in embracing technology and digitising patient care along with storing personally identifiable information, there is a need to strengthen information security.
Securing Healthcare data is critical as it is at a higher risk given the fact that this data fetches much higher value in black market than credit card numbers, because it can provide access to bank accounts or help in obtaining prescriptions for controlled drugs.
Healthcare sector needs significant improvements in its cyber-preparedness – a fact FBI made amply clear in 2014 when Community Health Systems faced a security breach leading to theft of 4.5 million patient records in the US.
More such breaches are expected in 2015.
Malvertising And Attacks On Email
2014 saw ad networks on reputed websites like Yahoo, AOL and Google being compromised to distribute malvertisements.
Malvertising (placing malware laden advertisements on reputed/popular webpages) is likely to become more of a nuisance in 2015.
Ad networks are continually compromised and threat actors are relying on the fact that blocking every ad or testing every ad network is not a practical solution. Malvertisers are also at advantage as reputed websites (news and infotainment) are rarely blocked by office firewalls.
Meanwhile, if reports are to be believed, Spam is on a decline.
This is partly due to the fact that spammers have devised other advanced ways to land mail in the inbox, while others have moved on to sophisticated spear phishing attacks targeting individuals behind corporate firewalls.
Nonetheless, the old tactics of crafting fraudulent mails around major global/local events is still profitable for Spammers. 2015 will not be any different in this regard, though one can expect to see some newer tricks for evading current email security solutions.
Demand for Context Aware Security
Networks these days generate huge amount of data. This data contains enough cues to offer patterns of human behaviour that can be used to predict and prevent cyber-attacks.
However, comprehending and co-relating data out of various logs and reports to get meaningful information requires time and skills. Besides, it carries the risk of human oversight.
Enterprises need a security model to harness this information and interpret network traffic to identify suspicious patterns and events.
In such a scenario, Big Data analytics tools can offer huge help in co-relating the data with a given user model to spot risky users and trends in a network. In fact, BFSI organisations have already started leveraging Big Data based security analytics for early fraud detection and prevention.
Employing the advancements in Big Data analytics, Context Aware Security solutions such as Cyberoam’s User Threat Quotient (UTQ) can help IT admins in tasks akin to finding a needle in a haystack – identifying a user posing security risk in a network. In 2015, such solutions will prominently be employed by organisations seeking actionable security intelligence.
iOS On The Radar Of Cyber-Criminals; Android Attacks To Continue
Mobile malwares will make a major impact in 2015, as more people are now using handheld devices to access critical business data from cloud apart from banking and payments.
In this scenario, the new Android OS, Lollipop, will be put to test. At the same time, as enterprises embrace Apple apps and use of iOS-based devices grows, these are getting on the radar of cyber criminals.
Recent trends suggest that in 2015, iOS will get hit by phishing attacks and malwares on a larger scale than ever before.
Solving the Puzzle Called ‘Password’
The quest for replacing ‘password’ as an authentication procedure will gain momentum.
It is reported that an increasing number of millennials in the US prefer Apple’s Fingerprint Scan for authentication purpose.
However, scaling up biometric authentication techniques like fingerprint scan is a big challenge. Moreover, standalone biometric authentication is not as full proof as thought earlier.
Considering recent incidents of data breaches and credential thefts in mind, the FIDO Alliance recently released its long-awaited 1.0 specifications for passwordless and multifactor authentication systems.
A major push to move away from passwords is likely to make hackers more than just shift in their seats.
Cyberoam Technologies, a Sophos Company, is a global Network Security appliances provider, offering future-ready security solutions to physical and virtual networks in organizations with its Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) and Unified Threat Management (UTM) appliances.
The virtual and hardware Cyberoam Central Console appliances offer Centralized Security Management options to organizations, while Cyberoam iView allows intelligent logging and reporting with one-of-their-kind, in-depth reports. Cyberoam is accredited with prestigious global standards and certifications like EAL4+, CheckMark UTM Level 5 Certification, ICSA Labs, IPv6 Gold logo, and is a member of the Virtual Private Network Consortium.
E-Business
Schmidt, Ex Google Chief Says AI Risky in Terrorist Hands

Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO has expressed concerns about the extreme risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI) falling into the hands of terrorists or rogue states.

Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO
He warned that nations such as North Korea, Iran, and Russia could adopt AI technologies to develop weapons capable of causing significant harm, including biological weapons.
Schmidt urged governments to oversee private tech companies, emphasising, “The real fears I have are not the ones most people discuss about AI, I talk about extreme risk.”
“I’m always worried about an ‘Osama Bin Laden’ scenario, where truly evil individuals take control of some aspect of modern life to harm innocent people,” he added.
With private companies driving AI advancements, he stressed the need for careful government monitoring and regulation. “It’s really important that governments understand what we’re doing and keep their eye on us,” he said.
His remarks followed a two-day AI summit in Paris, where the UK and the U.S. declined to sign a communiqué outlining the future direction of AI. The declaration on “inclusive and sustainable artificial intelligence for people and the planet” was endorsed by 57 countries, including India, China, the Vatican, the EU, and the African Union Commission.
The UK justified its decision, stating that the agreement lacked “practical clarity” on global AI governance and national security concerns.
Schmidt supports U.S. export controls restricting the sale of advanced AI microchips to certain countries, aiming to slow adversaries’ progress in AI research.
He also highlights the importance of international collaboration on AI safety, suggesting that cooperation with nations like China is essential to addressing global AI challenges.
E-Business
OpenAI CEO Rejects $97.4Bn Takeover Bid from Elon Musk

Sam Altman, chief executive of ChatGPT-owner OpenAI, has firmly declared the company “not for sale” following a $97.4bn (£78.4bn) takeover bid from a consortium led by Elon Musk.

Elon Musk
Speaking at the AI Action Summit in Paris, Altman emphasised OpenAI’s mission to develop AGI (artificial general intelligence) for the benefit of humanity.
Marc Toberoff, attorney for Elon Musk, confirmed the bid submission on Monday.
In response, Altman humorously offered to buy Twitter for $9.74 billion on Musk’s platform.
Unlike many tech giants, OpenAI is not publicly traded but operates through a complex partnership between non-profit and for-profit entities.
Musk aims to return OpenAI to its non-profit roots, despite owning a rival firm, xAI.
Christie Pitts, a tech investor, expressed scepticism about Musk’s intentions, noting his competitive interests.
Altman echoed this sentiment, suggesting Musk’s move disregards OpenAI’s mission.
Altman, who holds no stock in OpenAI, advocates transforming the organisation into a fully for-profit company to raise more funds for AI research.
Although the board has the final say, the $97.4bn offer falls short of OpenAI’s previous $157bn valuation and rumoured $300bn in future funding talks.
Toberoff stated the consortium might increase their bid. Meanwhile, OpenAI is collaborating with Oracle, a Japanese investment firm, and an Emirati sovereign wealth fund on “The Stargate Project,” a $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative announced by President Donald Trump.
E-Business
Adobe Launches AI Video Tool to Compete with OpenAI

Adobe yesterday released the first public version of an artificial intelligence tool that can generate video clips and revealed how much it will charge, but said it will not set pricing for major users such as studios until later this year.
The Firefly Video Model, as Adobe is calling the service, will compete against Sora, a model developed by ChatGPT creator OpenAI, and startup Runway, both of which currently offer video-generation services. Facebook owner Meta Platforms has also developed a video-generation AI model but has not given a timeline for when it will be released.
Adobe’s model differs from its rivals because it is geared toward generating clips that will fit into how film and television studios use Premiere Pro, its flagship video editing software.
To that end, many of the features that Adobe is emphasizing revolve around feeding existing shots into the video model and asking it to generate clips that fix or expand on shots that were taken on a real production set but that did not come out quite right.
Adobe said the service will generate five-second clips at 1080p resolution. While that is shorter than the clips of up to 20 seconds generated by OpenAI’s service, Adobe executives said the majority of individual clips in most productions are only three seconds.
Adobe said a user can generate 20 clips per month for $9.99 and 70 clips for $29.99. That compares with 50 videos for $20 per month with OpenAI’s plan at lower resolution and a $200 OpenAI plan that can handle longer, higher resolution videos.
Adobe is also working on a “Premium” pricing plan for studios and other high-volume video users and will release those pricing details later this year. Alexandru Costin, Adobe’s vice president of generative AI, said the company is working to generate 4K video and will remain focused on quality rather than longer clips.
“We actually think that great motion, great structure, great definition scheme, making the actual clip look like it was film, is more important than making a longer clip that’s unusable,” Costin told Reuters.
- General News2 days ago
MTN Increases Data Prices Amid NCC’s 50% Tariff Hike Approval
- E-Financial2 days ago
FG Takes Full Ownership of Keystone Bank
- E-Financial2 days ago
CBN Rolls out New ATM Transaction Fees Effective March 1
- Telecom2 days ago
Suspend 50 Percent Telecom Tariff Hike, Reps Urge NCC
- E-Financial2 days ago
Afreximbank Invests $52bn in Nigeria, Plans Energy Bank
- News2 days ago
SEC Urges State Governments to Explore Investment Opportunities in Capital Market
- Telecom2 days ago
NASENI CEO Mandates Institutes to Use Agency’s Technologies and Products
- General News2 days ago
Africa’s Startup Funding Increased by 240%