Why Teens and Tech-Savvy Workers Could Be the New Cyber Threats?

Be prepared for the unexpected when it comes to cybercriminals and threat vectors. Experian’s 12th annual Data Breach Industry Forecast, with AI at the forefront, includes five predictions for 2025. These predictions include the emergence of new sources of threats, such as AI-savvy teenagers and fresh targets for hackers of AI power centers.

The number of data breaches and consumers affected this year has already surpassed that of 2023, indicating that global data breaches are not calming down. It is imperative that businesses and consumers remain vigilant and monitor these five predictions for 2025:

Smells Like Teen Secret: Cyber espionage’s aftermath extends beyond adults. The FBI reports that the average age of an individual detained for cybercrime is 19, while the average age of an individual arrested for any other crime is 37. The “business” will have recruited numerous teenagers through online gaming, messaging, and social media platforms, where more sophisticated fraudsters target them. The number of states enacting legislation against cyberbullying, revenge pornography, and other online fraudulent attacks may lead to a dramatic increase in the prosecution of adolescents for hacking and fraud.

Internal Fraud Will Increase: The Enemy Within As more companies continue to train their employees on the responsible use of AI, There is a potential for a significant increase in the utilization of AI education by employees for internal espionage, sensitive information sourcing, and other purposes. At least one global brand may be affected by deception perpetrated by an insider to whom it provided educational AI training next year.

Read: Top 10 CIOs of The Fintech Industry

From Playgrounds to Passwords: Unexpected Cyber Threats on the Rise

Power-hungry data centers are becoming a preferred target. Power has emerged as a distinct attack vector with the exponential growth of consumer and business use of generative AI, even though global cyberattackers have had large data centers in their sights for years. On average, one ChatGPT query consumes nearly ten times the amount of electricity to execute than a standard Google search. All of these entities represent new assault surfaces that malicious actors could disrupt. The issue is being exacerbated on a global scale. Data centers and cloud infrastructure technology and security differ significantly among different countries. Cyberattackers may effectively compromise a nation-state’s cloud infrastructure by targeting the power required to operate it within the next year.

Predators Become Prey: Eating Their Own: In the high-stakes world of cybercrime, a recent incident in which hackers were deceived by sophisticated malware from a more malignant hacker and subsequently lost their funds highlights a rapidly expanding trend: the predators are becoming the prey. There is a potential for a substantial increase in hacker-on-hacker attacks in the upcoming year, whether for political or financial reasons. In the digital realm, the distinctions between predator and prey are becoming increasingly opaque, as evidenced by these incidents.

The Next Line of Defense Against Fraud: Dynamic Identification Fraudsters will soon be able to generate virtually undetectable proof-of-life documents that will deceive even the most discriminating eye or identification system, as AI-driven fraud is rapidly becoming more sophisticated. Standard 256-bit encryption is becoming obsolete. In order to address this changing reality, nation-states and government agencies may transition to dynamic identification, which would replace static driver’s licenses and social security cards with dynamic PII that is constantly updated, similar to an online 3D barcode that is used for event tickets.

Companies affected by a security incident can access international resources from Experian Global Data Breach Resolution. These resources include IdentityWorksSM Global, multilingual call centers, and notifications that are available in over 100 countries.

Read: Fintech in Healthcare: Software Innovations for HealthTech

Industry Comments