CA warns of new internet threats
ConvergenceAsia staff
11/09/2007

IT management software company CA today issued a report that warns of growing, more complex Internet threats facing home PC users—including targeted identity theft, emerging risks associated with online gaming, a doubling of malware exploits, and new software vulnerabilities.

The CA Mid-Year Internet Threat Outlook Report, which is based on data compiled by the CA Security Advisor Team, outlines the impact that organised crime, evolving technology, and the ongoing efforts of malware authors on the safety and security of home PC use.

“Everyone using the Internet should be aware of the nature and severity of online threats—especially gamers, social network users, seniors, tweens and their parents,” said Brian Grayek, vice president of Threat Research for CA. “It’s especially important to teach younger users about protecting personal information and handling cyber-bullies, because—even though they may be more adept at using the Internet than their parents—they tend to be far less diligent about practicing safe online computing.”

Predictions from the CA 2007 Mid-Year Internet Threat Outlook include:

1. Stealing online gaming accounts will become as profitable as stealing bank accounts.

2. “Spear-phishing” will grow as identity theft surpasses record levels.

3. Malware will increase by 132 per cent this year over last, with Trojans leading the pack. From January to June 2007, CA Security Advisor saw that 65 per cent of the malware threats were trojans, 18 per cent were worms, 4 per cent were viruses, and 13 per cent were other types of malware.

4. Mozilla Firefox will no longer be considered more secure than Microsoft Internet Explorer; and conventional wisdom that Apple Mac OS X is more secure than Microsoft Windows will crumble.

5. Cyber-criminals will increasingly use a “multi-step” approach to creating and distributing malware. Multi-component malware, such as sending spam with a Trojan, allows them to fine-tune the malware—making it harder for security vendors to identify.

6. Internet crime groups will look more like legitimate software businesses. No more attention-seeking hackers—organised groups of criminals have developers, marketers and distribution channels.

7. As Botnets grow, so will the risk of “botherders” using information about victims’ behaviour to offer demographics-based marketing.

8. As adware and hijackers continue to fade, the spyware category will be dominated by Trojans and downloaders.

9. Criminals will increasingly target lower profile but useful software, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader and Macromedia Flash, to exploit security holes.

10. Social networks are under fire for security weaknesses. Not only are they subject to the same weaknesses as web sites—SQL injection, cross-site scripting attacks and forgeries—but the ability to create web pages allows a criminal to post malicious code.

The CA 2007 Internet Threat Outlook is available at http://ca.com/us/securityadvisor/newsinfo/.

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