So you’ve made it through the holidays. What’s next? According to cybersecurity experts, the new year will bring a bumper crop of challenges stemming from socially engineered scams, poorly protected databases and the arrival of Windows 7. eSecurity Planet puts on the dark glasses and looks ahead.
The dawn of a new decade will usher in a new batch of complex and insidious malware traps that will prey on users’ obsession with social networking sites, the release of Windows 7 and a slew of other socially engineered lures, according to leading security software vendors.
If 2009 was the year of living dangerously online, 2010 will be akin to walking down a dark, virtual alleyway late at night alone without a flashlight, a whistle, or a loaded .357 Magnum.
According to security researchers at PandaLabs, the amount of malware in circulation in the coming year will grow “exponentially” as malware purveyors ratchet up their focus on new trojans, phishing scams and fake antivirus strains designed exclusively to usurp personal banking information to fleece unsuspecting Internet users.
Mobile devices, including the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android, will provide another fertile field for exploitation by cyber crooks looking for a quick score as users infatuated with real-time correspondence via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter let down their guard in the name of immediacy.
