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TOP FIVE CYBER THREATS IN 2008

Posted on February 5, 2008

      Security threats in the cyber scene have grown at an extraordinary rate in the past year. This year will also see a rise in spyware and rouge ware threats to computer security besides the general virus and worms problem. Below is the list of prominent threats we can see in 2008.

BOT & BOTNETS

      Bots and Botnets are a network of computers that perform automated spamming activities. 2008 is likely to face mainly challenging threats from Bots and Botnets.

      Today, Storm worm botnet is the chief infector of PCs. It has emerged stronger by demonstrating innovative techniques in avoiding detection from anti-virus.

      The presence of Storm is growing by the day as it is implementing newer techniques to expand its network and add more and more computers under its control. Storm will be the most important Botnet to observe in 2008.

      India is not seen in the map of Botnet hosts and controllers. However, Internet users in India are victims and their PCs are made zombies at large. A very large number of users and on-line community become victims of botnet control without being aware of the bot attack to their computers.

PHISHING SITES

      Phishing pronounced 'fishing' refers to fishing out sensitive user information by masquerading as a trustworthy entity, which is usually an email with clickable links. Phishing related frauds have been a cause of great concern in the past year.

      Year 2008 is likely to see a growing phenomenon with financial transactions as targets. With the dramatic rise in use of Internet banking, more and more phishing sites are being created.

      The Indian online banking community is an easy prey to phishing site creators. This is because of the high level of ignorance towards phishing attacks by internet users and lack of security measures by banks.

VISHING

      An off-shoot of Phishing, ÔVishingÕ is new in cyber crime. Vishing attackers steal personal and financial details of unsuspecting victims using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls. With VoIP and IP telephony penetrating Indian markets, vishing frauds are likely to be a trend in 2008.

ROOTKITS

      Rootkits are programmes designed to capture the 'root access' or take control of the system while avoiding detection from anti-virus scans.

      If you think that advancement in technology and research will bring about stronger and successful anti-rootkits to detect the presence of malware in the system, your system is no longer safe from rootkit attacks. The alarming fact is that, there is a greater possibility of advance rootkits getting developed that render all anti-rootkits useless.

      Rootkit growth has seen more enhancements in the kind of technology they use to penetrate deep inside the system and taking control to avoid detection by any scanner. We can come across few unforeseen tricks by this category of malware.

MOBILE MALWARES

      Mobile phones are becoming sophisticated by the day with a host of advanced features embedded in them. Use of mobile phones for accessing the internet is also on the rise in India. This has led to more and more mobile malwares that spread/infect other handsets without any user interaction through Blue-tooth, emails, or infected multi-media message (MMS).

      Spying tools are an emerging threat to mobile handsets. They can be installed on the target handset remotely to keep a log of each and every activity of the user.

      The logged information is forwarded to the spying server for viewing and spying. Spying tools are a definite threat in India where mobile phone security is lacking very much. The Indian mobile scene is unprotected leaving it open for attackers to take advantage.

      However, Quick Heal Technologies (P) Limited has found respite from mobile viruses and spyware in the form of PC2Mobile Scan feature. Quick Heal Total Security 2008 has a unique feature called PC2Mobile that checks for viruses in your mobile handset.

      Quick Heal Total Security 2008 is the world's first anti-virus that can scan and clean viruses from Mobile phones using a computer. Quick Heal Total Security 2008 can scan and clean viruses from 250 models of different brands like Nokia, Sony Ericsson , Samsung, LG, Motorola, IMate & O2.

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