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Cybercriminals too will make record profits in 2010 – Avira |
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Avira GmbH, a provider of IT security solutions for professional and private use, has predicted that 2010 will see an intensification of the threat to computers that is associated with increasing professionalism among data thieves. Consequently, Avira expects that “crime-as-a-service”, in other words the professional offer of illegal applications and computer attacks as a service, will rise significantly. In its statement, Avira said future threats are paying particular attention to data that hackers can put to illegal commercial use or convert into cash, including, for example, stealing credit card and account data or passwords for a wide variety of Internet services. Additionally, confidential corporate information is also of particular interest to cybercriminals. Avira recommends a combination of current virus protection and a watchful eye on the part of the computer user as essential iIn order guard against ever-increasing threats. Avira says growing threats for the year 2010 include:
Risks for private users Avira said it assumes new generations of malware to be programmed with greater sophistication so as to remain undetected for as long as possible, thereby maximizing the benefit to data thieves. More Spam is to be expected when data traffic levels are heaviest and users can be easily enticed to visit other sites – via instant messaging (IM) platforms like Skype, ICQ or Yahoo Chat. Known scareware like “Fake AV” (or “Rogue AV”, “Rogue Security Products”) will become more aggressive, and these softwares will attempt to fool the user into believing that the system has been infected and will offers costly virus protection to combat the problem. However, Avira says, what the user actually purchases and downloads is a useless tool that, in addition to financial fraud, can also cause further damage to the computer itself. Other risks include drive-by downloads, apparently legal banners that are manipulated and placed on familiar websites which infect PCs with malware if a user visits an Internet site prepared in this way. Shortened URLs, popular on social media networks, are also increasingly misused to conceal the identity of damaging links, particularly to much-frequented websites like Facebook, studiVZ or Twitter as their continuously growing number of users and their intensive communication patterns. Risks for businesses Avira expects 2010 to witness an increase in organized commercial and industrial espionage via the Internet, and expects a rapid increase in professional and targeted espionage attacks on corporate data from criminal gangs. The company predicts a sharp rise in attacks on small and medium-sized businesses in particular in the coming months. Many of the dangers are already known to anti-virus experts:
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