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CyTRAP Labs and CASEScontact.org

In the previous story entitled:

- Trend - youngsters spurn TV for online chat, yes but …

we pointed out that according to Ofcom - the UK’s regulator - the use of social networking sites on the internet by people under 24 is on the rise. Not only the time spent but, as importantly, people exchange tremendous amounts of data and information including but not limited to pictures and music with their friends on those sites (e.g., MySpace).

But what does this mean for the malware threat (exploiting, spreading and so on) between youngsters bringing their materials to school, their parents taking infected files to work and so on. Here are a few predictions that should become reality by 2008 in Europe. We are willing to make these predictions being fully aware that it might get us into hot water:

a. the threat through malware infection coming from teachers’/students’ or employees’ home computers (e.g., memory sticks and instanting messaging programs being used for sharing data, files and pictures) will surpass any other type of threats faced by school networks and corporate ones alike;b. programs reporting home (E.T. calling home) without the users’ knowing will be a rapidly increasing threat against confidentiality and privacy of data (e.g., customer data, corporate Rand D information);

c. the number of rootkits whose installation is being triggered by the unsuspecting user authorizing the installation of certain programs will increase (see Sony BMG rootkit case), in fact, on most home PCs several of these rootkits will exist, perform their malicious and not so malicious tasks, without users knowing;

d. the wisdom of the many is a great thing and sharing knowledge online can lead to remarkable advances to enterprises, for governments and for citizens (… if we get together and share what we know or many minds producing more but not necessarily better knowledge) (e.g., Wikipedia), unfortunately, this will also increase the diffusion of malicious code such as, zero-day exploits, in turn accelerating the spread of worms and increasing their level of prevalence within an ever shorter time-frame

The above will require an ever more cautious user that takes the necessary steps to protect herself as effectively as possible without making the Internet experience a pain

< CASEScontact.org guide UPDATE 2: Fighting off malware attacks the smart way (see Awareness and Prevention - Trend section)

_Update 2006-08-24_

According to a U.S. Justice Department study:

> 1 in 7 children using the Internet has been sexually solicited and
> 1 in 3 has been exposed to unwanted sexual material,>1 in 11 has been harassed.

So being carefull and protecting one’s privacy as a youngster is a very wise thing…just check out the facts in this study:

> 2006-08- Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later by the NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN with the U.S. Dept. of Justice and Crimes Against Children Research Center

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006 at 0:00 and is filed under