MU professor warns of increasing cybersecurity threat
COLUMBIA — As technology advances, cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated.
“Every time, every year, a lot of changes in terms of what new attacks are happening, and there’s always a surprise element of what you don’t expect is going to happen," said University of Missouri Associate Professor Prasad Calyam.
As cyberattacks are becoming more frequent, Calyam said most people are at risk of being attacked.
“Anyone online is at risk of a cyberattack, and I always say either you’ve been attacked, or you will be attacked soon, or you will eventually be attacked," he said.
He added cybercriminals are now going after non-traditional targets.
“More and more, we’re seeing the targets are schools, hospitals, small businesses that traditionally have not been targeted. The Colonial Pipeline attack [was] a classic example of an industry that we didn’t see cyberattacks in the past, he said.
Calyam noted schools, hospitals, and small businesses often get complacent with cybersecurity measures because they do not think they are a target.
He said there are two types of targets for cybercriminals: complacent and attractive. He added attractive targets are often victims of ransomware.
"The ransomware attacks are something that we’re seeing, increasingly growing because they are easy to launch [and are] very successful from an attacker perspective," Calyam said.
Calyam and his team are working to protect people from cyberattacks.
“We are focused on this idea of active defense, so if you look at cyber security, today you use a password, you put in a firewall, or you use some encryption for your data all of those passive measures you put them, [there] and you hope it’s working," he said. “What studying is how do we make this whole passive security paradigm more active, so we [know] the attacker, and we are doing things that will outsmart [cybercriminals].
He added types of cyberattacks come and go but said cybersecurity is lagging, in one area.
“There is a gap in the translation of ideas in the lab to practice and definitely in the cyber security space that gap is large just because of sophistication of the attacks and the fact that you need a lot of data to confirm how to respond," he said.
Calyam said the future of cybersecurity is moving toward artificial intelligence because it can better defend against sophisticated and high-scale attacks compared to humans.
He noted one of the best ways people can protect themselves against a cyberattack is to be aware and look out for anything suspicious.
Calyam added there is no perfect security that will keep everything safe. He said you can come up with a solution, such as installing cameras at your home, to the point where you are comfortable with the risk you are taking in terms of security.
"You're always vulnerable," he said.
Calyam noted the cloud provides a lot of security and can scale its growth, but he said there is one downside.
“People who use the cloud also need to be clever in how they manage the security because the cloud providers transfer as much liability to the customer," he said.
He noted cloud providers are providing more information and technology, so people who are starting to use the cloud have more security. l
Calyam added they are also researching cybersecurity within virtual reality. He said people can launch attacks in virtual reality, so they are studying those incidents. He said as virtual reality becomes more integrated with society, cybersecurity within virtual reality will be critical. to an attack
