Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
News
Web 2.0 Tops 'Emerging Cyber Threats'
10/9/2007
The ever-nebulous "Web 2.0" is emerging as one of the five top security risks to watch for both consumers and the enterprise--this according to the inaugural edition of the "GTISC Emerging Cyber Threats Report for 2008" out of Georgia Tech's Information Security Center. The report, released at the GTISC Security Summit on Emerging Cyber Security Threats and Countermeasures, identifies the key data security threats that are likely to expand and evolve in the coming year.According to the report, the chief motivator for all of the top emerging threats will continue to be financial gain, taking advantage of holes in continually advancing applications whose development has been, to date, outpacing the development of countermeasures.
Commenting on the report, GTISC Director Mustaque Ahamad said, “As newer and more powerful applications enabled by technologies like Web 2.0 continue to grow, and converged communications applications increasingly rely on IP-based platforms, new challenges will arise in safegaurding these applications and the services they rely on. The GTISC Emerging Cyber Threats Report for 2008 highlights those areas of greatest risk and concern, particularly as continued convergence of enterprise and consumer technologies is expected over the coming year."
The report listed five broad categories of data security risk, cited below:
- Web 2.0 and client-side attacks on social networking technologies, aimed at "stealing private data, hijacking Web transactions, executing phishing scams, and perpetrating corporate espionage;"
- Targeted messaging attacks, aimed at individual users, largely for the purpose of stealing authentications and private data;
- Botnets expanding the scope of their activities to the theft of information and increasing abuse of DMS servers;
- Mobile convergence threats, including "vishing," "smishing," and voice spam, plus denial of service attacks targeting voice infrastructure; and
- RFID attacks, including automated exploitation tools for tracking users via RFID devices, cloning, RF blocking, and even a form of tunneling in which commands, such as SQL queries, might be submitted to an RFID reader.
More information, including the complete report, can be found at the links below.
Read More:
- GTISC Emerging Cyber Threats Report for 2008 (PDF)
- Georgia Tech Information Security Center
- GTISC Cyber Threats Webcast
- Georgia Institute of Technology
About the author: Dave Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's educational technology online publications and electronic newsletters. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
Have any additional questions? Want to share your story? Want to pass along a news tip? Contact Dave Nagel, executive editor, at dnagel@1105media.com.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- IE Is Least-Patched Browser, Report Says
According to a report released last Tuesday, more than 40 percent of Internet surfers don't use browsers with up-to-date security patches--and Internet Explorer users are the biggest culprits.
- Ballmer Wants Board Change at Yahoo
Microsoft's executives have been talking with investor and corporate raider Carl Icahn about renewed plans for Microsoft to acquire part or all of Yahoo, provided that Yahoo's board is replaced. The details were described in an open letter issued Monday by Icahn, which is addressed to Yahoo's shareholders.
- July 2008 Crossword
Click above to see the solution for the July 2008 Campus Technology crossword puzzle.
- Stanford, IFL Introducing $50 Handheld to Mexico Students
Stanford University School of Education and Innovations for Learning, a Chicago-based nonprofit, have entered into a social entrepreneurship collaboration to bring the $50 Teachermate Handheld Computer to extremely underserved children in Latin America.
- 'Important' Fixes To Come in Microsoft's July Patch Cycle
IT pros will come back from the holiday weekend to face a possible four patches in Microsoft's July patch rollout, according an advance announcement issued by the company. The patches, arriving Tuesday, won't contain "critical" or "moderate" items, but all four will be deemed "important."
- Joliet JC Adopts MIR3 Emergency Notification Platform
Joliet Junior College will be deploying the MIR3 inCampusAlert emergency notification service for its main campus in Joliet, IL and its extended campuses and extension centers. inCampusAlert allows for dissemination of information to and from cell phones, e-mail, pagers, land lines, and SMS.
