US elections will also present a tempting target for spreading misinformation.

The anticipated attacks come against the backdrop of a seemingly never-ending pandemic that creates additional weaknesses.

With many people still working from home, attackers will seek to exploit remote connections to infiltrate corporate networks.

“Many organizations simply don’t understand just how exposed they are,” Useckas said.

Many cybercrimes, both big and small, go unreported, making it difficult to track overall data.

Still, experts say a handful of key metrics jumped last year, ringing alarms.

The figure easily surpassed the $416 million in suspicious payments reported for all of 2020.

See also

President Joe Biden’s administrationhas taken stepsto curtail ransomware and other cyberattacks.

Cyberattacks keep coming, but will the government take action?

Ransomware attacks that affect only corporate back office operations often escape public notice.

But when hackers shut down companies that consumers rely on, everyone is aware.

The Treasury Departmentsaid in September that it would start sanctioning cryptocurrency exchanges and other entities that launder ransomware payments.

That legislation might expand to include the prohibition of ransomware payments.

Often it can be unclear exactly what devices are running the software.

Like cars, software relies on a supply chain.

Engineers build software with premade parts that are often made up of smaller components.

“You don’t know where the source code is coming from.”

Experts also expect more hacks of the software supply chain in the coming year.

Instead of exploiting existing flaws, cybercriminals could insert malicious code into commonly used software to infect corporate systems.

Corporate customers then incorporated those products into their own systems, giving cybercriminals access to their systems.

Thousands of customers installed the tainted update, though SolarWinds says far fewer companies were actually hacked.

US officials say Russia was behind the attack.

The Russian government has denied involvement.

“I think, unfortunately, this is the start of a trend rather than a one-off incident.”

Conspiracy theories about vaccines, global cabals and election shenanigans have already flooded social media.

Fact-checkers from the media and other organizations have also tried to offset the streams of lies.

More misinformation is undoubtedly on the way.

News media have become more siloed and sometimes skip stories that don’t fit an agenda, Cappos says.

“People believe all kinds of weird stuff that they want to believe,” Cappos said.

“In a lot of cases, they won’t listen to fact-checkers.”

It’ll be up to consumers to tell the truth from the lies.

Scams get scarier, go mobile

COVID forever changed the way we work.

Cybercriminals will be working, too.

Consumers will also need to up their security game, Clay says.

Good methods of two-factor authentication, such as biometrics and push notifications, are going to be a must.

Simpler verification methods, like codes sent as SMS messages, just can’t be trusted anymore.

That goes forsmartphones, too.

Phishing, the practice of sending deceptive emails for get personal information, is going mobile.

In addition, the use of scam QR codes, or quishing, is also on the rise.

“People are going to need to secure their data.”