India Should Be Wary of Chinese Hacker Groups in 2018: Report

Malware targeting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies also expected to see a rise in 2018.

Chinese advanced persistent threat (APT) groups that have allegedly been creating cyber havoc internationally will shift their focus in 2018 to countries like India and Hong Kong and groups seen as a threat to Beijing's influence over global markets, enterprise cybersecurity company FireEye said this week.

Hacker groups backed by nation-states are termed as APTs.

The changing geopolitical situation in the Asia-Pacific region will give way to such threats.

For Indian enterprises, one of the most important security questions is, do you know who is targeting you and how they operate? The threat landscape looks very different depending on the nature of your business, the data you hold, your relationships, and more

Shrikant Shitole, Senior Director and Country Head India, FireEye, to IANS

For the government and private sector alike, the FireEye executive said, it's important we shore up defences to avoid a situation like Russia's meddling in the recent US presidential election.

In the Asia-Pacific region, FireEye said, China and neighbouring countries are still continuing political disputes, especially with India, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. Ransomware is expected to rise in 2018, especially as administrators are slow to patch and update their systems.

Other popular techniques that will continue to be used in 2018 are strategic web compromises and spear phishing, especially in targeted attacks. We also expect to see many more destructive worms and wipers, the cybersecurity firm noted.

Meanwhile, as cryptocurrency continues to skyrocket in value and popularity, malware targeting anonymous currencies such as bitcoin will increase in 2018.