From Deep fakes to DNA data breach, these advanced cyber threats are coming in 2020

The year 2020 is expected to witness the rise of more advanced and sophisticated cyber attacks. Security researchers warn abuse of personal information and more sophisticated attacks are coming next year. Kaspersky predicts cybersecurity threats could grow in sophistication and become more targeted.

External factors like the propagation of machine learning techniques and abuse of deep fakes among others could be responsible for the rise of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) in 2020. Tensions around trade routes between Asia and Europe could also fuel advanced cyber-warfare resulting in the rise of APTs in 2020.

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Following are advanced cyber threat predictions for 2020

-- False flag attacks could be a bigger problem in 2020 where threat actors not only seek to avoid attribution but also to try to lay the blame on someone else.

-- Ransomware could switch gears to become targeted threats where instead of making files unrecoverable, threat actors will threaten to publish data that they have stolen from the victim company.

--  New banking regulations in the EU could to some new attack vectors. Attackers will use banks' willingness to expand infrastructure to their benefit by abusing new mechanisms and fraudulent schemes.

-- More infrastructure attacks and attacks against non-PC targets could be on the cards.

-- Incidents of Political espionage could be on the rise as governments seek to secure their interests at home and abroad.

-- It is likely that attackers will continue to expand their existing hacking methods, courtesy of manipulated software containers.

-- Bad actors will try to take advantage of technologies like AI, biometrics, deep fakes in 2020.

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"The future holds so many possibilities that there are likely to be things that are not included in our predictions. The extent and complexity of the environments in which attacks play out offer so many possibilities. In addition, no single threat research team has complete visibility of the operations of APT threat actors," says Vicente Diaz, a security researcher at Kaspersky.

"We will continue to try and anticipate the activities of APT groups and understand the methods they employ while providing insights into their campaigns and the impact they have," Diaz added.