Social Networks among Cyber Security Threats in 2010

With social networking website Facebook reaching more than 350 million users, it is expected that 2010 will take such trends to new heights – and the cybercriminals know it.  That’s why McAfee Labs foresees an increase in threats related to social networking sites.  In addition, they predict threats to banking security and botnets, as well as attacks targeting users, businesses, and applications.  However, in 2010 McAfee researchers also expect to see an increase in the effectiveness of law enforcement to fight back against cybercrime.

“Over the past decade, we’ve seen a tremendous improvement in the ability to successfully monitor, uncover, and stop cybercrime,” said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Labs.  “We’re now facing emerging threats from the explosive growth of social networking sites, the exploitation of popular applications and more advanced techniques used by cybercriminals, but we’re confident that 2010 will be a successful year for the cyber security community.”

You can read the 10 page report entitled, “2010 McAfee Labs Threat Predictions” by clicking here – http://www.mcafee.com/us/local_content/white_papers/7985rpt_labs_threat_predict_1209_v2.pdf – or you can read my summary below -

• Social networking sites such as Facebook will face more sophisticated threats as the number of

users grows.

• The explosion of applications on Facebook and other services will be an ideal vector for cybercriminals,

who will take advantage of friends trusting friends to click links they might otherwise treat cautiously.

• HTML 5 will blur the line between desktop and online applications.  This, along with the release of

Google Chrome OS, will create another opportunity for malware writers to prey on users.

• Email attachments have delivered malware for years, yet the increasing number of attacks targeted

at corporations, journalists, and individual users often fool them into downloading Trojans and

other malware.

• Cybercriminals have long picked on Microsoft products due to their popularity.  In 2010, we anticipate

Adobe software, especially Acrobat Reader and Flash, will take the top spot.

• Banking Trojans will become more clever, sometimes interrupting a legitimate transaction to make an unauthorized withdrawal.

• Botnets are the leading infrastructure for cybercriminals, used for actions from spamming to identity

theft.  Recent successes in shutting down botnets will force their controllers to switch to alternate, less vulnerable methods of command, including peer-to-peer setups.

• In spite of the worldwide scope of botnets, McAfee anticipate even more successes in the fight against all forms of cybercrime in 2010.

In addition, malware authors love following the social networking buzz and hot spots of activity; that will continue in 2010.  As Google and other providers crack down on search engine poisoning, it is expected that Twitter and similar services will increase in appeal for such purposes.  Along with Twitter’s success there has been widespread adaptation of abbreviated URL services, such as bit.ly and tinyurl.com.  These services now appear in all sorts of communications—making it easier than ever to mask the URLs that users are asked to click.  This trick will play a more predominant role in 2010; it’s the perfect avenue to direct users to websites that they would normally be wary about visiting.