Here are the biggest security threats in 2009

Written: February 09, 2009

2008 will soon be over and a new and exciting year lies in front of us. 2008 was an interesting year for computer security. We saw, once again, escalating threats towards companies from almost all fronts. Especially the leaks of unencrypted data in England, the automatized SQL injection mass-attacks and the attacks on social network services were some of the big public problems in 2008.

But then how will 2009 be? Now, it's obviously very hard to predict the future in such a dynamic world, however we have made an effort to come up with our ideas for what might be, the 10 biggest security threats in 2009:

1. Weak economy
   

   The economic crisis, which right now is devastating many businesses all over the world, will most likely result in companies having to cut down on expenses. In these kinds of expense cuts, typically what gets cut first is the administrative expenses like e.g. computer security and preventive measures. We can therefore expect to see an increase in the amount of security issues in software and systems developed in 2009.

2. Lack of education
   

   One of the greatest threats towards security in a company is and will always be education. This has been, in our minds, the biggest issue in 2008 and actually have always been the biggest issue. Users of IT solutions do not understand the security problems in such a way, that they can effectively protect themselves. We will therefore, once again this year, probably see an increase in successful hacker attacks - attacks that largely could be prevented by increased education.

3. Mobile devices
   

   Employees are becoming more and more mobile as each day passes. One of the big things that really got a boost in 2008 was mobile broadband. This technology specifically, can lead to employees beginning to do their jobs outside of the company's secure parameters. A trend that could ultimately lead to catastrophic data leakage, that is if it is not prevented by good policies and encryption.

4. Outsourcing
   

   Due to the economic crisis, a lot of companies will probably begin to outsource certain tasks to cheaper labor in other countries. This act however has a lot of serious security implications, since the company now no longer has control of how its data is handled. It is therefore extremely important, that companies make a proper security policy with their outsourcing partner and that this policy is actually followed.

5. Espionage
   

   The time when hackers were just small kids in a basement is, by far, over. Today several indications are showing that hacking has, in several cases, been used by e.g. China to attack government institutions in the USA. This type of attack, which for the record can have catastrophic consequences, will likely escalate in 2009, where we will see even more examples of this form of Internet warfare.

6. Anonymity/Privacy
   

   While nations all over the world are using more and more censorship and surveillance, many freedom-loving employees will begin to work harder to secure their privacy and the right to free speech. This will probably manifest itself in an increased use of software to break blocking mechanisms and hide information about the user. With this increased usage, it will become much harder for companies to identify malicious users, since it will now not only be the criminals who are attempting to hide from identification.

7. Apple's Mac OS X
   

   While viruses and spyware are everyday fears of Windows users, Apple's Mac OS X has up until now avoided most problems. They've actually avoided it so well, that many Mac users are now, mistakenly, believing Mac OS X can not be infected with malicious software, like e.g. a virus. Apple had a record high sale of Macs in 2008 and as their market share increases, so will the number of attacks on the platform increase. Sooner or later it will therefore become a security risk to have an unprotected Mac OS X on the company network and companies should therefore implement effective security policies for Mac users.

8. Insecure websites
   

   A lot of companies and government institutions still have websites with several security issues of varying types. With the increasing economic crisis and the likewise increasing amount of computer criminals, it is very likely many more companies will be attacked from the web this year. Even many more than earlier years.

9. SMS Scams (SMiShing)
   

   With the expanded use of SMSs for almost any thinkable communication, criminals will soon begin to notice the possibilities in the use of SMS to scam individuals and companies. Most do not know, that it is extremely easy to fake an SMS so that it seems as if the SMS is from "Mom" or "The Boss". This makes it easy for criminals to scam people into wiring funds or giving out passwords.

10. Social networks
    

    Social networks are not as big of a threat as some security companies would have you believe, however there are several dangers you should take seriously as a company owner. Like e.g. in 2008 there were several attempts at spreading viruses through Facebook and especially MSN Messenger is often a target for computer criminals. All of these attacks can however generally be avoided with simple education of one's employees. We don't recommended blocking the access to social networks for your employees, even though we know certain companies do this today.