The year of 2006 will most likely be characterized by even more phishing attempts than this year and a wide proliferation of bots. We will also be witnessing more adware and spyware and more commercially driven cyber crime, says Norman CEO Trygve Aasland.
 

Phishing

2006 will be probably be characterized by even more phishing attempts than 2005. The number of phishing attacks increased with as much as 91 % during 2005 and it is expected to grow even more the following year. According to the Anti Phishing Working Group there were 15820 unique phishing reports in October alone. The number of hijacked brands the same month was 96. - This form of online identity theft is likely to increase in the future. Our challenge is to find solutions that will protect the customers. But at the same time the users need to pay attention and be aware of this kind of fraud, says Aasland.
A world of robots

The increasing existence of zombies is likely to be an even larger threat in the following year than it was in 2005. Zombies are computers that have been compromised in such a way that they can be used to perform illegal acts. The owner/user of the compromised computer may not be aware of the fact that a hacker has installed a sleeping robot inside his or hers computer. A robot that can be remotely controlled to perform different forms of illegal activities. One of the most common attacks that zombies are used for is Distributed Denial of Service attacks. In 2005 the number of such attacks grew with as much as 680 %. This trend is expected to continue next year.
 

From toys for boys to organised crime

The reason for performing Distributed Denial of Service attacks and phishing attempts is most likely money and financial gain. The development of these kinds of frauds shows that cyber crime no longer is performed by innocent script kiddies who like to destroy for fun and for reputation. Today there is a much stronger motive of economic gain that lies behind the criminal activities. The increase of more ad- and spyware proves that there are strong financial forces behind large parts of the IT criminality. - This is yet another challenge for the security businesses. It is easy to download adware and spyware without even having the slightest idea that your computer is being infected. Much of the responsibility lies on us with regards to protecting the users effectively, says Aasland.

One or two worms based on new concepts and exploits

In 2005 there was quite a large number of worms and viruses that were specially designed to exploit vulnerabilities in operative systems and programs. It is likely we will continue to see more specific malware that exploits certain vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s and others programs and systems in 2006.
 

No major attacks
Compared to earlier years there were no really major attacks during 2005. The outbreak of Sober and Mytob were the largest outbreaks this year, and none of them were as big as the malware outbreaks we have seen in earlier years. There is a trend that the hackers and virus authors no longer focus so much on the destruction, but rather seeks economic profit. In order to do that there is no need for massive proliferation of destructive code.

SAV25 Data Systems