Trend Micro 2011 Threat Predictions: Mobile Devices and Diversity of Operating Systems Will Expand Cybercriminal Reach

CUPERTINO, Calif., Dec. 9, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- With the growing diversity of operating systems among companies, as well as the growing use of mobile devices, cybercriminals should have a very profitable 2011. Their tactic will be to put a new spin on social engineering by way of "malware campaigns," by bombarding recipients with email that drop downloaders containing malware. All this will largely be made possible because of the Internet. Already, Trend Micro threat researchers have found that more than 80 percent of the top malware use the web to arrive on users' systems (1).

Diversity of operating systems expand opportunities for cybercrime

2011 will bring about a growth in exploits for alternative operating systems, programs and web browsers, combined with tremendous growth in the use of application vulnerabilities.

Cloud computing and virtualization -- while offering significant benefits and cost-savings -- move servers outside the traditional security perimeter and expand the playing field for cybercriminals and increases security demands on cloud service providers.

Trend Micro expects more proof of concept attacks against cloud infrastructure and virtualized systems to show up in 2011. Knowing that the desktop monoculture will disappear, cybercriminals will test how to successfully infiltrate and misuse a monoculture in the cloud.

Targeted attacks on "unpatchable" (but widely used) legacy systems – like Windows® 2000/Windows® XP SP2--will continue to proliferate.  

It's all about social engineering

Social engineering will continue to play a big role in the propagation of threats.  Trend Micro believes in 2011 there will be fewer infiltrated websites; instead cybercriminals will focus on malware campaigns, the promotion of malware through cleverly designed e-mails convincing users to click on a link that will ultimately lead to a malicious downloader. The downloader then randomly generates binaries to avoid detection, as Conficker and ZeuS-LICAT have done in the past.

Thanks to easy-to-use underground toolkits, mid-sized companies will be targeted in cyber-espionage.  In 2010, the use of underground toolkits exploded, making it easier to target particular types of organizations.  ZeuS primarily targeted small businesses in 2010.  Moving forward, localized and targeted attacks are expected to continue to grow in number and sophistication both against big name brands and/or critical infrastructure.   

In 2011, it is very likely that cybercriminals will increasingly target security vendors' brands in order to cause confusion and insecurity among users.

More key forecasts for 2011 and beyond: 

• It's all about money, so cybercrime will not go away.
• There will be an increase use of stolen or legitimate digital certificates in malware attacks, to avoid detection.  
• Further consolidation will happen in the cybercrime underground as groups merge and/or join forces as global and public attention for cyber attacks will grow.
• Some security vendors will run into trouble with their inability to store all the threat information with local signatures. They will retire old signatures which will lead to infections from old/outdated malware.
• More proof of concept and some successful attacks on mobile devices will occur.

The volume and sophistication of threats on the Internet make it imperative that multilayered, real-time protection is used to ensure online safety. The Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ security infrastructure, which powers most of Trend Micro's products and solutions, correlates web and email threat data by using reputation technologies that compare threats against in-the-cloud threat databases. This unique type of cloud-client content security infrastructure gives Trend Micro customers real-time protection against the latest Internet threats, while enjoying online activities to the fullest.

Trend Micro has several solutions in its portfolio to secure data and servers in virtualized and cloud environments including: Trend Micro SecureCloud and Trend Micro Deep Security.  Trend Micro recently announced Trend Micro™ SecureCloud™, a hosted key-management and data encryption solution designed to protect and control confidential information that is deployed into public and private cloud-computing environments.  Trend Micro Deep Security provides advanced security for physical, virtual, and cloud servers and virtual desktops. Deep Security combines intrusion detection and prevention, firewall, integrity monitoring, log inspection and agentless anti-malware capabilities in a single, centrally managed enterprise software solution to protect dynamic datacenters.

(1) Data from TrendLabs from April – September 2010.  

About Trend Micro:

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in Internet content security, focuses on securing the exchange of digital information for businesses and consumers. A pioneer and industry vanguard, Trend Micro is advancing integrated threat management technology to protect operational continuity, personal information, and property from malware, spam, data leaks and the newest web threats. Visit TrendWatch to learn more about the latest threats. Trend Micro's flexible solutions, available in multiple form factors, are supported 24/7 by threat intelligence experts around the globe. Many of these solutions are powered by the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network cloud infrastructure which delivers advanced cloud protection, blocking threats in real-time before they reach you. A transnational company, with headquarters in Tokyo, Trend Micro's trusted security solutions are sold through its business partners worldwide. Please visit Trend Micro.com.

SOURCE Trend Micro Incorporated