13 Computer Security Predictions for 2013
By Stu Sjouwerman, for KnowBe4.com Security Awareness Training
Some of you may know that I wrote the WServerNews e-zine for 15 years, and one of my traditions is to make predictions for the coming year in the last issue of the year. We’re going to continue that with CyberheistNews, so here they are, and see you in 2013.
A big THANK YOU to you, our readers, for helping us continue to make CyberheistNews the most fun security newsletter in the world. Happy New Year!
In Memoriam of excellent science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury who passed away in 2012: “People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it. Better yet, build it. Predicting the future is much too easy, anyway. You look at the people around you, the street you stand on, the visible air you breathe, and predict more of the same. To hell with more. I want better.” — Ray Bradbury
Here Are Your 13 Predictions For 2013
1. First Quantity, Now Quality: In 2013, cybercrime will focus more on quality than before. They will opt for increasingly smart malware, and more focused attacks.
2. BYOD Target Number One: As part of cybercrime’s focused attacks, they will be looking to infect the private mobile devices of employees who have access to the company network. BYOD will be a bear for IT the coming year. Toll fraud, malware that charges money to a user’s mobile phone bill will be the leading monetization strategy for mobile malware writers.
3. Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) usually coming from China, will expand from enterprise to the civilian population, specifically celebrities, politicians and business leaders. The APT goal will be to either create or find offenses they can blackmail the victim with. Things like first putting child pornography on someones phone, and then threatening with revealing that information to police and press. Politicians and CEOs need to be extra careful as surveillanceware (like FinFisher) for espionage will increase.
4. Malware for Apple Goes Global: It has been tested well enough now, and will make headlines in 2013 as the vast majority of Apple users are still not using any antivirus. They will regret that the coming year.
5. The old Windows-centric computing environment has literally gone out the window, and people are now using various sizes of computing slabs (phones, tablets) each with their own operating system, causing update fatigue and many leaving all the defaults in place. Hackers rejoice with a million Android-based malware variants, one of which will have a critical bug and bricks phones.
This excerpt appears with permission from knowbe4.com.
