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MUMBAI
NOVEMBER 29, 2006
McAfee today announced its top ten predictions for security threats in 2007
from McAfee Avert Labs. According to McAfee Avert Labs data, with more than
217,000 various types of known threats and thousands more not yet identified, it
is clear that malware is increasingly being released by professional and
organized criminals.
In no particular order, McAfee Avert Labs' top ten security threats for 2007
are:
1. The number of password-stealing Web sites will increase using fake sign-in
pages for popular online services such as eBay.
2. The volume of spam, particularly bandwidth-eating image spam, will
continue to increase.
3. The popularity of video sharing on the Web makes it inevitable that
hackers will target MPEG files as a means to distribute malicious code.
4. Mobile phone attacks will become more prevalent as mobile devices become
"smarter" and more connected.
5. Adware will go mainstream following the increase in commercial Potentially
Unwanted Programs (PUPs).
6. Identity theft and data loss will continue to be a public issue - at the
root of these crimes is often computer theft, loss of back-ups and compromised
information systems.
7. The use of bots, computer programs that perform automated tasks, will
increase as a tool favored by hackers.
8. Parasitic malware, or viruses that modify existing files on a disk, will
make a comeback.
9. The number of rootkits on 32-bit platforms will increase, but protection
and remediation capabilities will increase as well.
10. Vulnerabilities will continue to cause concern fueled by the underground
market for vulnerabilities.
"Within a short period of time, computers have become an intrinsic and
essential part of everyday life, and as a result there is a huge potential for
monetary gains by malware writers," said Jeff Green, Sr VP, McAfee Avert
Labs and Product Development. "As we see sophisticated techniques on the
rise, it's becoming increasingly hard for the general user base to identify or
avoid malware infections," he added.
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