Beware: ransomware
Ransomware -- a type of malware which restricts access to the computer system that it infects –will become increasingly sophisticated in its methods and targets, experts at McAfee Labs warned.
"We predict ransomware variants that manage to evade security software installed on a system will specifically target endpoints that subscribe to cloud-based storage solutions such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Once the endpoint has been infected, the ransomware will attempt to exploit the logged-on user's stored credentials to also infect backed-up cloud storage data," McAfee's report on 2015 cyber risks noted.
Ransomware encrypts data and McAfee thought attacks on mobile devices and cloud-backed data would increase.
"Ransomware victims will be in for a rude shock when they attempt to access their cloud storage to restore data—only to find their backups have also been encrypted by the ransomware," the experts said.
More worryingly, ransomware attackers will find as many ways as possible to extract ransom payments from victims to release their encrypted data, McAfee warned.