Security predictions released today by Arbor
Networks reveals that the iPhone will be a major target for
cybercriminals in 2008. The forecast also highlights Chinese specific
crime as a major issue for the New Year.

Arbor’s Security and Engineering Response Team (ASERT), who have put
together the forecasts, believe that the iPhone will become the victim
of a serious attack in 2008. These assaults are likely to be in the form
of drive by attacks - malware embedded into seemingly harmless
information, images or other media that actually perform dangerous
actions when rendered on the iPhone’s Web browser. With the scrutiny
the iPhone has received since its launch earlier this year over network
lock-in, ASERT believes that hackers will be enticed by the possibility
of attacking Apple users and the opportunity to “be the first” to hack a
new platform.

Increase in Chinese cybercrime for 2008

ASERT has also predicted a rise in ‘Chinese on Chinese’ cybercrime. In
the past year the team has seen a dramatic increase in the attention
paid to Chinese-language specific software such as QQ Messenger and a
number of malware samples focused on stealing users credentials. Arbor
expects this trend to multiply in 2008 as more Chinese users come
online, more software is written for the market and Chinese
cybercriminals become increasingly more sophisticated and organised.

Storm botnet hijacking and Peer-to-Peer

The Storm botnet is another vulnerability that ASERT believe will be
prevalent in 2008. Although the Storm botnet has been quiet for some
time, there are still tens of thousands of infected PCs around the
world. Arbor believes this presents a too lucrative an opportunity to be
passed up and anticipate a hacker hijacking the bots for their own gain
in the New Year.

Spammers are highly motivated by financial gains and are not afraid to
push technological boundaries to develop new attacks. Arbor envisages an
attack that will eclipse the storm worm vulnerability that caused havoc
in 2007 and in 2008 we will see a much larger, but similar (spam) botnet
designed to target P2P networks.

“2007 was the year of the browser exploit, the data breach, spyware and
the storm worm. We expect 2008 to be the year of the iPhone attack, the
Chinese Hacker, P2P network spammers and the hijacking of the Storm
botnet,” said Jose Nazario, senior security engineer at Arbor Networks.
“Online fraud is soaring and security attacks are now being used in
countless and ever more sophisticated ways to both steal and launder
money. Financial and other confidential data is being obtained, sold and
utilised in the highly developed black market. In 2008 this market will
continue to grow and it is important that business implement the
processes and technology necessary to protect themselves and their
customers.”

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