McAfee's top 10 predictions for security threats in 2007 are (in no particular order):
1. The number of password-stealing Web sites will increase;
2. The volume of spam, particularly bandwidth-eating image spam, will continue to increase;
3. Movie files will be targeted as a means to distribute malicious code;
4. Mobile phone attacks will become more prevalent;
5. Adware will go mainstream;
6. Identity theft and data loss will continue to be a public issue;
7. The use of bots, computer programs that perform automated tasks, will increase as a tool favoured by hackers;
8. Parasitic malware, or viruses that modify existing files on a disc, will make a comeback;
9. The number of rootkits on 32-bit platforms will increase, but protection and remediation capabilities will increase as well; and
10. Vulnerabilities will continue to cause concern, fuelled by the underground market for them.
So in short, many of the popular ways the modern Internet-connected citizen uses to communicate will also be conduits for malicious code, plus a few older problems will resurface. Vista won't be the answer because according to Microsoft, it will be vulnerable to old malware.
Perhaps the most concerning trend of 2006 - and one which will continue in 2007 - is the number and type of rootkits. The stealth rootkit that uses virtualisation technology to hide at a lower level than even the OS kernel will be a particular risk given that it is all but invisible to the OS. Staying patched will become more important than ever.
Offline patching
Staying patched will become more important than ever.
Paul Furber, senior group writer, ITWeb
If you're struggling to stay patched, then Heise Security has created a very useful collection of Microsoft patches on its Web site that allows updates to be made even if the PC to be patched is not connected to the Internet.
"Our offline update 3.0 script collection downloads the entire body of updates for Windows 2000, XP or Server 2003 from Microsoft's servers in one fell swoop and then uses them to create patch packages on CD, DVD or USB stick," says the announcement. "Those in turn allow you to update as many PCs as desired."
If you're going past relatives and they pop the "do you have time to look at my computer?" question, you could be forearmed with this collection.
Links courtesy of Heise Security, The Register and McAfee.
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