Ransomware, malware attacks to continue in 2018 as hackers advance to machine learning, analytics

It's been a pretty scary year where cybercrime is concerned, with words like ransomware, malware and spyware becoming a part of our daily lexicon. Over 27,000 cyber security incidents were reported in the first half of the year alone-at least one cybercrime reported every 10 minutes-according to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team. We hate to be the harbingers of gloom and doom, but 2018 is likely to be just as bad according to the recently-released McAfee Labs 2018 Threats Predictions Report.

"The evolution of ransomware in 2017 should remind us of how aggressively a threat can reinvent itself as attackers dramatically innovate and adjust to the successful efforts of defenders," said Steve Grobman, Chief Technology Officer for McAfee, one of the world's leading standalone cybersecurity companies. So if WannaCry made you want to weep, know that it was just a taste of things to come as hackers develop new strategies.

In the coming year, the company not only expects continued risks from ransomware attacks and malware authors but, perhaps, also from companies selling smart home devices. Here are four key trends to watch out for:

"Connected home device manufacturers and service providers will seek to overcome thin profit margins by gathering more of our personal data-with or without our agreement-turning the home into a corporate store front," warns the report. Of course, privacy risks from smart devices is nothing new, especially in the developed nations, but it's a problem that India is slowly waking up to. The report adds that large-scale gathering of personal information and user-generated content opens consumers up to the risk of data misuse, abuse, and even compromise.