M86 has released its threat predictions for 2011, and smartphones and tablet devices top the list as potential targets, according to Infosecurity.com. This will be due to an increase in online banking, and a shift from simple exploit kits to more sophisticated malware-as-a-service models.
Users also can expect data-stealing trojans to become more sophisticated. In addition, malware-as-a-service (MaaS) will also take off. According to the report:
Our research indicates that a shift is occurring whereby exploit kit developers have started to provide services (instead of/in addition to) classical application offerings.
TMCnet.com says report explains:
although Malware-as-a-Service isn’t new, we’re seeing it take hold. New service offerings signal that the shift may become more prominent in the coming year. In the same way that cloud computing is growing for commercial organizations, cyber crime is also moving this same way.
IT Business Edge blogger Sue Marquette Poremba is most surprised by one prediction: spam campaigns increasingly imitating legitimate mail from popular websites. She notes:
These aren’t new methods of attack; businesses have been spoofed in e-mail for years now. I guess cyber-criminals figure that if it continues to work, then why not continue to use it?
