Cyber-criminals are exploiting the economic downturn to scam
users, according to the 2009 threat report from security
firm
McAfee.
The coming year will see money-making scams using fake financial
transactions, investment firms and legal services, the report
said.
Attacks are getting increasingly difficult to track, analyse and
protect against, said Greg Day, security analyst at McAfee.
Malware is becoming more dynamic, relying on internet
connections to distributed resources to work, he told Computer
Weekly.
This makes malwareincreasingly time-consuming to simulate and
analyse.
The distribution of malware through
legitimate sites and web-based applications is also expected to
continue through 2009.
As cloud computing gains popularity, cyber-criminals are likely
to targetthese services to steal information for financial gain,
said Day.
McAfee expects to see the continued expansion of malware in
languages other than English.
Cyber-criminals have come to realise that by diversifying into a
global market they can access larger collections of valuable
information, the report said.
Attacks involving USB sticks and flash-memory devices used in
cameras and other consumer electronic devices are expected to
increase.
This trend will continue due to the almost unregulated use of
flash storage across enterprise environments, the report said.
The underground economy began using mainstream practices to sell
fraudulent software in 2008, and McAfee expects this trend to
continue.
The report predicts that 2009 will see greater law enforcement
collaboration with ISPs following the effective reduction of spam
in 2008, when ISPs pulled the plug on spam host
McColo.