There’s a certain inevitability in IT security predictions: Things are only going to get worse.
That, of course, is because Internet crime pays, and pays well, so why should miscreants give it up?
So McAfee Labs’ annual threat predictions report, issued Wednesday, contains few surprises for IT and security administrators. As they must know by now, it’s vital to keep on top of patches and updates.
Still, it is interesting to note that McAfee believes the hactivist group Anonymous will be “less politically visible” this year that before because its “level of technical sophistication has stagnated” and its tactics against potential victims – governments and corporations – are allegedly better known by now.
Meanwhile, McAfee believes, countries will be more frequent actors and victims of
cyberthreats. While so-called “patriot groups” self-organized into cyberarmies have had little impact up until this point, their actions will improve in sophistication and aggressiveness. State-related threats will increase and make the headlines while suspicions about government-sponsored attacks will grow, says McAfee..
Other predictions include:
That includes ransomware that locks up a smart phone or tablet until a price is paid.
Watch for a new mobile worm to go on a major shopping spree in 2013.
The Android/Marketpay. A is a Trojan horse program that buys apps without user permission. In 2013, cyber-crooks will take this malware’s app-buying payload and add it to a mobile worm so attackers won’t need victims to install a piece of malwarem says McAfee.
malls.
—Crimeware and hacking-as-a-service expand
Cybercriminals are notorious for going onto public forums to make business deals with other criminals to offer not only software, but also hacking-as-a-service. As the number of invitation-only criminal forums requiring registration fees is increasing to make forums more secure and anonymous, these offers will be easier to find on the Internet in 2013, says McAfee.
Recently, McAfee Labs has seen several attacks in which the only goal
was to cause as much damage as possible — a behaviour that is expected to grow exponentially in 2013. If attackers can install destructive malware on a large number of machines, the results can be devastating.