CA Forecasts Major Targets For Online Crime in 2008

Recently, CA Inc. issued, "Internet Security Outlook Report", which warns that Web 2.0 and social networks are some of the top targets potentially vulnerable to cyber attacks in 2008. The research, which refers to compile data from CA's Global Security Advisor, features online threat predictions for the current year and also discusses about the 2007 trends.

Commenting on the outcome of the study, Brian Grayek, Vice President of Product Management at CA's Internet security business wing said that cyber criminals tap places where they find opportunities and exploit each and every vulnerability coming to their notice, as reported by COMPUTERWORLD on March 11, 2008.

In its 2008 predictions for online security, CA said that bots would feature as the dominant threat. The security firm reported that bot-infected computers would sharply increase in number during 2008.

CA also said that to make detection of threats harder for security professionals, bot herders will navigate to new tactics with decentralization through peer-to-peer architectures. CA reported that bot herders' use of instant messaging to spread botnets is continuously growing.

Further, according to the report, malware would become more sophisticated in 2008. Moreover, the security vendor acknowledged that there already are new types of smarter malware emerging. This and other malware would aim at virtualized computer systems and largely use techniques of obfuscation to hide from plain sight.

The 'Internet Security Outlook Report' by CA also predicts increasing targeted attacks on Web 2.0 sites and services. While implementation of Web 2.0 services is relatively simple, it could be pretty challenging to make them totally secure. As a result, many sites utilizing these services could easily become vulnerable with little indication of being compromised.

CA also forecasts that criminals would target online gamers for their virtual assets. Computers with reduced security measures for the purpose to enhance performance would also amount to easy targets for cyber thieves.

Another security threat that will find large implementation by cyber crooks in 2008 relates to social networking Websites. According to the report, the rise in popularity of such sites together with a large number of their users would largely pose them as cyber criminals' potential targets.

Related article: CA Canada Found Alarming Facts About Corporate Data Loss

» SPAMfighter News - 3/20/2008