If you use a social network or Adobe Reader products, beware in 2010. Security researchers say these vehicles will see more malicious attacks from hackers in the months ahead.
On Monday, McAfee Labs released its 2010 Threat Predictions report to outline the tech threats enterprises and consumers should be wary of. Social networking and Adobe products are in the spotlight, along with banking Trojans, botnets and HTML 5.
“Sites such as Twitter and Facebook have changed the way we communicate, interact and share on the web,” said David Marcus, security research manager for McAfee Avert Labs. “As user bases for the top online social destinations reach record highs, cybercriminals are building out their criminal toolkits, taking advantage of new technologies, third-party applications, and hot spots of activity to exploit users.”
Malicious Networking?
What does this mean for the average surfer? According to Marcus, it means the next time you receive an invite from one of your Facebook friends to play a game that looks like it’s shaping up to be the next Farmville, you should think twice before you click.
“In 2010, users are going to be more vulnerable to attacks that blindly distribute fake apps across their networks. The same goes for bit.ly’s and TinyURLs,” Marcus said. “As abbreviated URLs become more ubiquitous, it will be even easier for cybercriminals to mask and direct users to malicious sites.”
Ken Dunham, director of global response for iSIGHT Partners, said social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter will continue to gain media attention and be the focus of innovation, data mining, and targeted attacks in 2010.
“If you were to go in a room and ask how many people have social-networking accounts, pretty much the whole room is going to have their hands up,” Dunham said. “We are in the information age and a lot of information about…