Johannesburg, 04 Dec 2008
Story= Symantec has compiled a report of the biggest security threats and trends of 2008. Traditional threats like malware, spyware, phishing attacks, identity theft, viruses and spam are all accounted for, with fresh threats emerging to attack consumers and businesses from all-new angles.
Symantec has identified the current global economic crisis as a catalyst for new attacks that target the recently unemployed looking for new ways to support themselves.
New angles for attacks include new “work-from-home” scams, fake job sites that host malicious code and e-mails advertising easily obtainable mortgages or ways to refinance.
The “Underground Economy” has also experienced significant growth, the report says, with Symantec's researchers noting that stolen goods and fraud-related services to the value of $276 million were advertised on underground servers between July 2007 and June 2008.
A relative newcomer to the list of threats is “scareware”, a category of fake programs that promise to secure users' computers, but which then go on to produce fraudulent results and hold the computer to ransom until users pay to have the fake problems addressed.
Social networking sites are being targeted more by phishing attacks, the report says. Spammers have also been observed promoting certain social networking sites (presumably for their own nefarious purposes), it adds.
Symantec says this kind of activity will become more of a concern for IT staff in the future, as incoming workers, ones accustomed to accessing such sites in their personal capacity, will likely access them using corporate resources.
Virtualisation technology will play a greater part in security, as it has the means to offer a completely secure environment, isolated from the chaos of a general-purpose operating system, Symantec concludes.
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