Scareware Swindles to Resurface Next Yr: Websense

The scareware strategies and fake anti-virus activities, which declined this year (2011), will resurface in 2012 with some changes, according to Websense Security Labs' latest forecasts.

Three areas false registry clean-up, forged speed enhancement software, and bogus back-up software will appear as new scareware sub-categories in 2012, the report said.

Besides, the incidents of security breaches and attacks for seizing social media identities will also keep on rising. These hits may prove more beneficial to scammers than credit cards.

The cybercriminals will trade in the social media identities in online forums. By using the social networking login IDs, they can influence a huge number of victims with a merged assault technique. This method may be applied beyond social media to cover mobile devices and cloud systems.

Next year will see wider adoption of mobile, social and cloud technologies, and the cybercriminals will take advantage of this move, the Market Watch quoted the report on November 17, 2011.

In 2012, apocalyptic forecasts, and events like the London Olympics and the US Presidential elections, and Mayan calendar are also expected to lead to an increase in such attacks by scammers.

As search engines now eliminate cynical results, the scammers will use social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and forum conversations for the attacks.

Observing the report's forecasts, Websense Chief Technology Officer Dan Hubbard said the sophisticated cybercriminals will use personal devices, social media IDs, and private web activities of people to generate more complex attacks. In future, the triumph of cyber attacks on business and government would depend more on how successfully they could tempt the innocent victims to click on their links, rather than on the complexity of the code.

The security firm advises the users to be cautious while searching, posting and discussing views on the Internet on any of these topics or something else.

Keeping in view the rising complexity of cyber attacks, security firms should modify their approach towards protection. They should shift their focus from cybercrime and malicious software to outbound scrutiny for diminishing data loss.

Related article: SecureWorks Identifies Bank and Information Stealing Trojan Coreflood

» SPAMfighter News - 11/26/2011