Cyberthreat Forecasts for 2010: More Complex with New Targets
Russian security experts Kaspersky ventures a forecast for malware development in 2010 and sees new types of attacks coming our way.
Cyberterrorists will be seeking filesharing opportunities in the coming year, such as peer-to-peer networks, for victimization, according to Kaspersky Lab. First indications have already emerged during 2009: working over Torrent portals, malware such as TDSS and Virut, and in its premiere, the first backdoor Trojan horse for Mac OS X, have already wreaked havoc.
Meanwhile criminals known as botnet providers are busily competing over turf. The Kaspersky report indicates, "Cybercriminals will continue to compete for traffic. The modern cybercriminal world is making more and more of an effort to legalize itself and there are lots of ways to earn money online using the huge amount of traffic that can be generated by botnets."
If the forecasts materialize, the contrary trend has nevertheless been that the number of fake antivirus programs foisted on users are falling off. In 2009 the phenomenon reached its highpoint with the Kido/Conficker worm, where its huge installation base saturated the market, while causing a shakeup of security providers with law enforcement authorities. The trick to the rogue antivirus programs was in their "discovery" of an alleged vulnerability on the PC, thereby eliciting user panic and recourse to an anti-malware program for a price that proceeded to install just more malware and reduce the computer to a bot.
What should be expected alongside are more complex malware and sophisticated rootkit technologies, says Alex Gostev, director of Kaspersky Lab's Global Research & Analysis Team.
Much of the upcoming focus for budding cybercriminals might end up being Google's Wave web service. Kaspersky sees atacks on the Google service in the usual three phases: sending spams, starting phishing attacks and spreading malware by exploiting vulnerabilities. However, the equally new Chrome web service is not expected to attract much attention among cybercriminals, at least not in the near term.
2010 might be a different story for the iPhone and Android mobile phones. The first malware for these devices appearing in 2009 supports the fact that these mobile systems are certainly in the malware industry cross hairs, predicts Kaspersky. One definite point of entry is unsecured third party software. The strategy supports Kasperky's credo that cybercriminals are professionals undertaking their own form of market analysis: Android devices are gaining popularity in China. Further Kaspersky analyses are available on its website.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Juno Computers Launches Another Linux Laptop
If you're looking for a powerhouse laptop that runs Ubuntu, the Juno Computers Neptune 17 v6 should be on your radar.
-
ZorinOS 17.1 Released, Includes Improved Windows App Support
If you need or desire to run Windows applications on Linux, there's one distribution intent on making that easier for you and its new release further improves that feature.
-
Linux Market Share Surpasses 4% for the First Time
Look out Windows and macOS, Linux is on the rise and has even topped ChromeOS to become the fourth most widely used OS around the globe.
-
KDE’s Plasma 6 Officially Available
KDE’s Plasma 6.0 "Megarelease" has happened, and it's brimming with new features, polish, and performance.
-
Latest Version of Tails Unleashed
Tails 6.0 is based on Debian 12 and includes GNOME 43.
-
KDE Announces New Slimbook V with Plenty of Power and KDE’s Plasma 6
If you're a fan of KDE Plasma, you'll be thrilled to hear they've announced a new Slimbook with an AMD CPU and the latest version of KDE Plasma desktop.
-
Monthly Sponsorship Includes Early Access to elementary OS 8
If you want to get a glimpse of what's in the pipeline for elementary OS 8, just set up a monthly sponsorship to help fund its continued existence.
-
DebConf24 to be Held in South Korea
Busan will be the location of the latest DebConf running July 28 through August 4
-
Fedora Unleashes Atomic Desktops
Fedora has combined its solid distribution with rpm-ostree system to make it possible to deliver a new family of Fedora spins, called Fedora Atomic Desktops.
-
Bootloader Vulnerability Affects Nearly All Linux Distributions
The developers of shim have released a version to fix numerous security flaws, including one that could enable remote control execution of malicious code under certain circumstances.