Security Response

As 2009 came to a close, we at Symantec looked into our crystal ball and made a few predictions regarding what online security trends we expected to see in 2010. Now that we’re halfway through the year, we’re taking a look back and evaluating ourselves based on how our forecasts are panning out thus far.

Here’s a brief recap of how we think our trend predictions are fairing. We’ve rated each of them as either “on track,” “mostly on track,” “still possible,” or “more likely next year.”

To view an interactive version of this graphic that provides more detail, please click here. Once you do, you can click on each of our predictions and the corresponding mid-year statuses to read more.

The two most common questions I hear around this time of year are: what do you think the biggest trend of the year was and what do you think the biggest threat next year will be. After outlining a year in review, let’s spend a little time on what we may expect to see in the next 12 months.

Obviously, the debut of a new operating system brings with it new features for both the research community and malicious code authors to scrutinize. It’s simple to expect that we’ll see new attack attempts on Microsoft Vista. What’s more interesting are trends we’re likely to see that don’t even touch the physical hard drive of a computer. Web 2.0 technologies have already begun to capture attacker interest and motivation. As adoption continues to grow and dependence on these Web applications increases, the impact and frequency of these issues will rise.

Consider the...

The two most common questions I hear around this time of year are:what do you think the biggest trend of the year was and what do youthink the biggest threat next year will be. After outlining a year in review, let’s spend a little time on what we may expect to see in the next 12 months.

Obviously, the debut of a new operating system brings with it newfeatures for both the research community and malicious code authors toscrutinize. It’s simple to expect that we’ll see new attack attempts onMicrosoft Vista. What’s more interesting are trends we’re likely to seethat don’t even touch the physical hard drive of a computer. Web 2.0technologies have already begun to capture attacker interest andmotivation. As adoption continues to grow and dependence on these Webapplications increases, the impact and frequency of these issues willrise.

Consider the...

The countdown to December 31 has begun. As 2006 comes to a close,it’s important to review the significant trends and issues observed bySymantec Security Response over the past year. Some of these may relateto what we can expect to see in the New Year.

First and foremost, throughout 2006 we identified that online fraudhas steadily increased and become even more sophisticated. Much of theonline fraud activity we’ve seen has been in the form of phishing –approximately seven million total phishing attempts each day. That’s alot of cybercriminals on the hunt for your personal information! Wehave also witnessed phishers innovating beyond the traditional onlinescam where they may distribute tens of thousands of emails hoping totrick one of you lucky individuals. Today, we are seeing fraudstersembrace new techniques such as vishing and SMishing to solicit andobtain your confidential information. See Zulfikar Ramzan’s blog...