Monday, December 11, 2006

The web is danger at every turn

The Ranter
The Views of The Ranter

Article quoted directly from Reuters, Internet criminals to step up "cyberwar" in 2007.

I know a lot of you are aware that in my real life, I am a security consultant and one of the services I specialize in is computer security. With that point made, I was reading through the Reuters news feeds and came across an item that should be of interest to anyone on the web.

I will quote the first few paragraphs of the article and suggest anyone interested click here and read it in its entirety.

The article, titled, “Internet criminals to step up "cyberwar" in 2007” written by, By Peter Griffiths, opens states: “LONDON (Reuters) - Computer hackers will open a new front in the multi-billion pound "cyberwar" in 2007, targeting mobile phones, instant messaging and community Web sites such as MySpace, security experts predict.”

"The attacks are becoming more sophisticated," said Dave Rand of Internet security firm Trend Micro. "It's all about making money. And they're making a lot of it," he told Reuters.

In 2007, hackers will be scouring social networking sites such as MySpace to gather information for more focused attacks on people's computers.

"It is definitely an area that is ripe for more exploitation by malware (malicious software)," said Ed English, Trend Micro's Chief Technology Officer for anti-spyware.

People could find their computers infected with viruses that secretly record all their keystrokes or send out millions of spam email messages.

Identity theft fraudsters will trawl through sites, which allow people to leave their pictures and personal details, finding targets for "phishing" attacks -- fraudulent emails aimed at tricking people into revealing credit card numbers.

2 comments:

Guy said...

It is a testament on the quality of our relationships in these social networks that we can not selectively and as a group counter-target these malicious individuals. So much for power in numbers if between us we find it impossible to suppress or erradicate their activity. What ever happened to 6 degrees of seperation and all that? Can't our social networks actually perform a useful function even to the point of protecting themselves? They aren't social networks, they're social piles, like sand loosely amalgamated by gravity.

The Old Ranter said...

Very well said, social networking is such a wonderful idea, but all it takes is one person, or worse, group to destroy the fabric of its soul.

This has been a never ending battle and the lines change daily.

Ranter