Top 13 Security Threats for '10

If you thought 2009 was filled to the brim with malware, spyware and bots, wait till you see what lies is store for 2010. An article recently published on Datamation, looks at Symantec's predictions of what the leading threats for next year will be, looking at areas like Mac, Windows and social networking.  

After a year of unprecedented proliferation of spyware, malware and cyber attacks of all types, security software vendor Symantec warns there's plenty more where that came from in its just-released 2010 Security Trends to Watch report.
Kevin Haley, Symantec Security Response group product manager, this week posted an ironic blog entry titled "Don't Read This Blog" to draw attention to the company's latest report and to illustrate how Internet users have been conditioned to click any compelling link without regard to the possible-and often probable -- security consequences of their actions.
"We love to click," he wrote. "Clicking on links and attachments that are accompanied by just the slightest bit of social engineering appears to be a basic human need."
"I expect it to show in a revision of Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs any day now -- behind love, but certainly ahead of safety," he added.
Whether it's a come-on for what appears to be a friendly game of online Monopoly or the incessant and sinister pleadings of a bogus antivirus application, malware scams have become more sophisticated and damaging with each passing day.
A report released earlier this year by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) found that fake anti-malware and security software programs soared up more than 585 percent in the first half of 2009 alone. In 2007, Gartner said that more than 3.6 million people lost more than $3.2 billion to malicious phishing scams.
"Yes, it's a cheap trick and not even close to original," Haley wrote of his creative blog title. "'But' since social engineering plays such a prominent role in future trends, it seemed appropriate."

By Larry Barrett
November 30, 2009