2023 saw the advent of generative AI mischief: this year, brace ourselves for turbo-charged ransomware attacks amid increases in cloud repatriation.
AI and quantum computing are the new frontiers for the tech industry.
While organizations across various industries are seeking to leverage technologies to bolster their operations, there is a need to be wary about how these trends affect key domains of the tech sector, such as cybersecurity and data management.
So, in which directions will cybersecurity and data management head in 2024? Following are two predictions.
A new era of robo-ransomware?
Firstly, the first end-to-end AI-powered robo-ransomware attack will usher in a new era of cybercrime pain for organizations in 2024.
Over the past two years, many organizations have already experienced a successful ransomware attack. While the scale has been startling in its own right, this will be even more troubling when cyberattacks are paired with the latest developments in (generative) AI.
Tools such as WormGPT (the malicious counterpart of ChatGPT) already make it easy for attackers to improve their social engineering tactics with AI-generated phishing content that is much more convincing than ever before, and at an even faster speed than before.
In 2024, cybercriminals will put AI into full effect with the first end-to-end AI-driven autonomous ransomware attacks. Beginning with robocall-like automation, cyber threat actors will be using AI to automatically and speedily identify targets and execute breaches. It could then be used further, to extort victims and then deposit ransoms into attackers’ accounts, all with alarming efficiency and minimal human interaction.
This type of end-to-end AI-powered ransomware attack could gain momentum as the next attack type in 2024.
Cyber threats from cloud-to-legacy equilibrium
In 2024, there will be a 50/50 split between organizations that make the jump to the Cloud, and the ones that develop an on-premises data center.
Some industry estimates suggest that some 57% of data is now stored via cloud computing versus 43% via on-premises (legacy) infrastructure.
This growth is attributed to mature firms with on-premises foundations making the jump to the Cloud (Cloud repatriation), and newer firms building their infrastructure in the Cloud from the ground up — against a wave of around 70% to 80% (according to IDC) of firms repatriating at least some data back from the public cloud each year.
Both categories of organizations are learning that, for all its benefits, cloud computing is not ideally suited for all their applications and data. Therefore, many firms have been partially repatriating their data.
We are also observing cloud-native firms supplementing their cloud infrastructure with on-premises computing and storage resources.
As a result, in 2024, we could see a hybrid cloud equilibrium. Therefore, a hybrid multi-cloud will play a key role as organizations address the challenges of managing data access between private networks and public clouds —to continue their business transformation journey to sustain innovation and growth.
(Editor’s note: Just as cloud computing has carried innate and emergent cyber risks, cloud repatriation is also susceptible to the risks of legacy infrastructure, as well as the risks of migration.)
