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Mobile Hackers On The Move In 2006
John Stith
Staff Writer
2005-12-21
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Big-time cybersecurity company McAfee talked about the threats to cybersecurity in the coming year. The unveiled their outlook for 2006 the forecast is somewhat cloudy as they expect a tremendous rise in mobile threats as well a continued rise in phishing scams and identity fraud.
 | | Mobile Hackers on the Move |  |
Mobile malware was first sighted in June 2004 when a group of professional virus writers created the first proof-of-concept virus for smartphones demonstrating that malicious code could be created for Symbian operating systems. Soon after, 'Duts' was released the first virus for Pocket PC Systems and the first file infector for smartphones. Since then, several mobile Trojans have appeared, resulting in an alarming growth of mobile malware.
McAfee's AVERT Labs says they expect to see a significant rise in the number of mobile threats in the coming year. They attribute the rise of smartphone technology as the primary reason of the changes and shifts in malware from the traditional PC to the much smaller smartphones.
The damage cause by these new mobile threats will likely be more extensive than previous malware because of the high volume of smartphones and the small percentage protected by mobile security. McAfee compares the "I Love You" virus, which hit tens of millions of PCs in a couple of hours even with security software to the possible mobile phone threats. They suggest a multi-operating system virus could hit literally 200 million simultaneously because most do not have any mobile security.
Most people won't get mobile software because the perception is it's unneeded. The problem is mobile phone malware writers learn from others to build nasty little problems that could be hard to detect by traditional methods.
They are also predicting an increase in potentially unwanted software including things like spyware and adware. They mentioned one of the toughest issues would be the differentiation between legitimate advertising companies and those looking to spread illegal and/or unethical adware/spyware. Another thing was the ongoing suit of 180Solutions suing over this very issue.
Then they went into the advent and proliferation of phishing. Phishing scams continue to create problems for many an Internet user and McAfee says the problem will only get worse:
Phishing scams will continue to cause concern in 2006 as attacks become increasingly more targeted through the use of spyware programs and password stealers. Flaws in email protocols, security weaknesses in browser software, and a lack of basic computer security education will contribute to this increase in phishing incidents as criminals exploit these issues. McAfee AVERT Labs predicts an increase in distributed phishing Trojans - Trojans that turn an infected computer into a phishing Web site and then spam others to go to that infected machine or site.
McAfee is certainly right that these problems will only get worse. As more and more financial gain is seen and realized in this cyber crime business, it only means this problem has no chance of going away in the near future.
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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