Conversations on “the biggest dark web forum” indicate that leaked nudes — stolen from platforms like OnlyFans — and AI-supported cyberattacks will be among the top threats in 2024, NordVPN said in a press release on Tuesday.
NordVPN also predicts an increase in cyberattacks by amateur hackers, more leaks of stolen sensitive data, and attacks that bypass biometric authentication.
Instead of assessing prevailing trends in the industry to predict the biggest cyber threats for the upcoming year, NordVPN decided to “take a different route” and assess trending topics on the biggest dark web forum. NordVPN declined to identify the dark web forum it analyzed for these predictions.
“Every year we try to predict sophisticated attacks from experienced hackers, who mostly target businesses or influential people,” NordVPN’s CTO Marijus Briedis said. “Taking this year’s approach helped us realize that regular internet users, however, are often attacked by amateur hackers who are still developing their craft. They can cause a lot of harm to their unsuspecting victims and users need to be informed about their plans.”
Leaked Nudes and AI-Assisted Attacks
Threads about leaked nudes from OnlyFans and Instagram were among the top 20 most commented threads on the forum, with about 1,850 comments, NordVPN said.
“This means that next year we will see even more attacks, where pictures of naked people will be leaked. Another route criminals can take is using AI or deepfake technology to create fake nudes to trick their buyers,” Briedis added.
NordVPN also noticed that hacked ChatGPT accounts and tutorials about how to use AI for cyberattacks are also popular. “This not only means that AI users are on the radar, but hackers are learning how to use AI to increase the capacity of their work and make their job easier, quicker, and more effective,” NordVPN said.
There are already several malicious chatbots available on dark web marketplaces, like WormGPT, FraudGPT, and DarkBERT.
Other Threats in 2024
Another threat to look out for is amateur hackers, who are rapidly acquiring skills through shared resources. Every tenth post NordVPN researchers assessed was about learning different cyberattack techniques.
“Among the most commented threads were: “How to dox,” “List of useful resources for testers and hackers”, “How to hack WhatsApp of your friend by sending a single link,” “How to instantly crack TikTok accounts easily,” “WiFi hacking course,” and others,” NordVPN revealed.
There’s also widespread interest in stolen personal data on the dark web. About 55 percent of forum threads involved leaked customer data like “social media credentials, driver licenses, addresses, and emails.”
“Customer data will be selling like hot cakes,” NordVPN said.
Discussions about bypassing biometric authentication also garnered significant interest. A thread explaining how to circumvent biometric authentication, like the selfie verification on some crypto sites, received over 200 comments.
“Biometric authentication will surely be a part of authentication in the future, but only if it is multi-factor,” Briedis said. “So we can not only predict that biometric authentication will show to be unreliable, but that more layered ways to protect online accounts will appear.”
To counter these threats, NordVPN researchers warned against sending photos through social media and using encrypted cloud solutions for photo sharing. They also recommend using passkeys technology to secure your accounts, and browser extensions like NordVPN Sonar to block phishing messages.
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