Security Featured Article

Security technology company, McAfee, Inc, has forecast that the declining economy will drive the malware threats in 2009. In a new report entitled 2009 Threat Predictions, McAfee (News - Alert) Avert Labs, the global research team of McAfee, states that the tough economic times will lead to more cybercrime and exploitation of legitimate users.

McAfee calls on users to beware of fake financial transactions services, fake investment firms, and fake legal services in 2009.

Calling 2008 an unprecedented period for threats, the report points out that as malware gets more and more varied, the protection against them also has to continuously evolve in order to be effective.

"Computer users face a dangerous one-two punch today," said Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Avert Labs, McAfee’s research group. "The current economic crisis is delivering a blow to our financial well-being, while malware authors are taking advantage of our distraction to deliver a roundhouse strike."

Listing the threats, the report says that as the world turns to the Internet as its main platform, malware authors have also transitioned to the Internet “cloud” as their main delivery vehicle.

Pointing out that malware authors already use the popular features of Web 2.0 such as social networking, McAfee’s report states that this trend will continue through 2009 and will eventually displace more traditional vectors of malware distribution.

Another key trend identified by the report is that cyber threats will continue to evolve in order to evade security measures. The report gives the example of single-use binary files, which are an attacker’s equivalent of a single-use credit card number used by consumers when shopping online.

Pointing out that these binaries make it difficult for victims to identify their assailants and defenders to catch them, the report states that these binaries were a driving force behind the exponential rise in malware discoveries in recent years.

The growth of malicious binaries is not the only worrying trend. The report also states that cybercriminals are targeting a larger audience by using languages other than English in malware. McAfee notes that from global spam, scams, and phishing, attacks have become more focused and aimed at specific populations and geographies.

McAfee also says that the almost unregulated use of flash storage across enterprise environments as well as their popularity among consumers will see increased attacks involving consumer devices such as USB sticks and flash-memory devices used in cameras, picture frames, and other consumer electronics in 2009.

Another trend that is expected to continue in 2009 is the use of mainstream practices in an effort to “sell” software that was either misleading in its legality or outright fraud. With the malware underground finding this a lucrative market, more cybercriminals are likely to join the fray.

The report ends on a positive note pointing out that spam traffic took a tremendous dive in volume when ISPs pulled the plug on spam host McColo Corp., the source of up to 60 percent of worldwide spam.

McAfee notes that, globally, 2009 will see organizations shift from passive support of law enforcement to an active role of working collaboratively with ISPs and global Internet entities such as ICANN in order to stop cybercrime.