McAfee today released its annual 2013 Threat Predictions report,
highlighting the top threats McAfee Labs foresees for 2013. Using its
proprietary Global Threat Intelligence (GTI), the McAfee Labs team
analyzed data on malware, vulnerabilities and online threats in 2012 to
predict which trends will increase in 2013. In the coming year, McAfee
Labs expects that threats to mobile devices will become even more of a
focus of cybercriminals, the influence of the hacktivist group
“Anonymous” will decline, and large-scale attacks that attempt to
destroy infrastructure will increase.
“Cybercriminals and hacktivists will strengthen and evolve the
techniques and tools they use to assault our privacy, bank accounts,
mobile devices, businesses, organizations and homes,” said Vincent
Weafer, senior vice president of McAfee Labs. “Our 2013 Threat
Predictions provides the general public, governments and businesses
not only with the top risks in the year to come to be aware of, but also
the preventative measures that should be taken to avoid those risks from
occurring. Only by understanding and preparing for threats, can we
empower people to secure their information.”
McAfee Labs foresees the following trends for 2013:
Rapid Evolution and Growth in Mobile Malware
In 2012 McAfee Labs saw the number of mobile threats increase
dramatically as ransomware expanded into mobile devices. The development
and deployment of increasingly sophisticated ransomware technologies
that will “lock up” a phone or tablet, and threaten to keep it that way
until a ransom is paid, will be a prominent trend in 2013. The harsh
reality of these schemes is that users have no way of knowing if their
device will be unlocked even if they do meet the perpetrator’s demands.
Since attackers hijack the users’ ability to access data, victims will
be faced with either losing their data or paying a ransom in the hope of
regaining access.
A new mobile worm will go on a major shopping spree in 2013. The
Android/Marketpay.A Trojan horse program buys apps without user
permission. In 2013 cyber-crooks will take this malware’s app-buying
payload and add it to a mobile worm so attackers won’t need victims to
install a piece of malware. In addition, mobile phones with NFC-enabled
“digital wallets” are an easy target for cyber-thieves. Attackers will
create mobile worms with NFC capabilities to steal money via the “bump
and infect” method, most commonly used in areas with dense populations
like airports and malls.
Hacktivism - The decline of Anonymous
Due to many uncoordinated and unclear operations and false claims, the
Anonymous hacktivist movement will slow down in 2013. Anonymous’ level
of technical sophistication has stagnated and its tactics are better
understood by its potential victims, and as such, the group’s level of
success will decline. While hacktivist attacks won’t end in 2013, if
ever, they are expected to decline in number and sophistication.
Nation states and armies will be more frequent actors and victims of
cyberthreats. Patriot groups self-organized into cyberarmies have had
little impact up until this point, but their actions will improve in
sophistication and aggressiveness. In 2013, many more of the world’s
military units will be on the front line of social networks
communicating more frequently. State-related threats will increase and
make the headlines while suspicions about government-sponsored attacks
will grow.
Crimeware and Hacking as a Service Expand
Cybercriminals are notorious for going onto public forums to make
business deals with other criminals in to offer not only software, but
also hacking as a service. As the number of invitation-only criminal
forums requiring registration fees is increasing to make forums more
secure and anonymous, these offers will be easier to find on the
Internet in 2013.
Citadel will become the Trojan of choice among cybercriminals- with the
recent release of Citadel Rain, the Trojan can now dynamically retrieve
configuration files, enabling a fraudster to send a targeted payload to
a single victim or a selection of victims. Detection will become more
difficult as the footprint on the endpoint is minimal until the attack
actually occurs.
Big-Scale Attacks Increase
Recently, McAfee Labs has seen several attacks in which the only goal
was to cause as much damage as possible- a behavior that is expected to
grow exponentially in 2013. If attackers can install destructive malware
on a large number of machines, the result can be devastating. To keep
the business running, production networks and SCADA industrial control
systems should remain completely separate from the normal network, to
prevent it from getting hit in the first place.
For a full copy of the 2013 Threat Predictions report from McAfee
Labs, with additional threats, please visit: http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/reports/rp-threat-predictions-2013.pdf
About McAfee
McAfee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC),
empowers businesses, the public sector, and home users to safely
experience the benefits of the Internet. The company delivers proactive
and proven security solutions and services for systems, networks, and
mobile devices around the world. With its Security Connected strategy,
innovative approach to hardware-enhanced security, and unique Global
Threat Intelligence network, McAfee is relentlessly focused on keeping
its customers safe. http://www.mcafee.com
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