Malware and cybercrime are among the fastest-evolving trends in computing, unfortunately. As quickly as the security vendors move to combat the latest malware, the bad guys make a countermove to continue their nefarious activities. Every year things change and in 2009, a number of new trends emerged in malware that were very different from 2008 trends. What are they? eSecurity Planet will tell you.
Sophisticated campaign tracking and dramatically increased use of social networking technologies, such as Facebook and Twitter, were two of the top trends in cybercrime in 2009, according to a new report released Tuesday.
Criminal attacks using social networking sites increased by 500 percent between 2008 and 2009, according to the Blue Coat Web Security Report for 2009, by application delivery network provider Blue Coat Systems. That makes those sites the top focus for cybercriminals’ activities.
“Ever since the ILoveYou virus, the average user has known that e-mail can be dangerous,” Chris Larsen, senior malware researcher and engineer for Blue Coat Systems, told eSecurityPlanet.com. “People know to be careful with e-mail.”
But while users have learned to be careful with e-mail, many still haven’t made the connection that links or attachments in forum posts, Facebook pages, and tweets carry the same risks as links and attachments in e-mail.
