Deprecated: Function create_function() is deprecated in /home/hidefide/public_html/blog/wp-content/plugins/wr-pagebuilder/core/core.php on line 127
{"id":221,"date":"2011-10-02T13:05:13","date_gmt":"2011-10-02T13:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/icaruspressblog.wordpress.com\/?p=221"},"modified":"2019-04-17T12:14:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T12:14:14","slug":"ibm-report-mobile-spam-on-the-rise-sun-sets-in-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/02\/ibm-report-mobile-spam-on-the-rise-sun-sets-in-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"IBM Report: Mobile Spam on the Rise, Sun Sets in the West"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"homer\"In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, \u201cD\u2019Oh!\u201d Just when you thought you had things figured out, a new report from IBM states that desktop computers will become the craze and everyone will want one, that everyone in the world will be able to send messages over this new thing called \u201cthe Internets\u201d, and that a new pop star named Lady Gaga will take the world by storm. Oh yeah, they also advise us that mobile spam is on the rise. In other words, they\u2019ve stated the blatantly obvious.<\/p>\n

Haters of spam and phishing, beware. We\u2019ve got some bad news for you. Really bad news. You\u2019d better be seated for this one. We\u2019ll wait.<\/p>\n

[waits]<\/p>\n

OK, good. Now that you\u2019re seated, we have some earth-shattering news that will rock you to your socks: mobile spam is on the rise. Now that we\u2019ve said it, we\u2019ll wait while you catch your breath.<\/p>\n

[waits]<\/p>\n

Better now? Good, because it came as a shock to us, too. ComputerWeekly.com reported<\/a> this week that IBM has just released its X-Force 2011 Trend and Risk Report<\/a>, and the news is, well, just as we expected. Now that our sarcasm is expended, let\u2019s take a look at the facts, for IBM does, in fact, put together a pretty sweet report, replete with fancy graphics and yes, some pretty interesting reading.<\/p>\n

BYOB or BYOD?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Personally, I prefer BYOB, but IBM\u2019s report focuses on the growing trend of BYOD, or bring your own device. A nifty if not so advantageous upgrade to the bring your parent to school days, BYOD, simply put, is a natural occurrence in a world that\u2019s fascinated by mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. The offshoot of people bringing their devices to work, of course, is that they want to connect those devices to the company network, and that\u2019s where the problem lies. According to IBM\u2019s report, as stated by ComputerWorld.com, \u201cMobile vulnerabilities are expected to grow at least 15% year-on-year, while mobile exploits are predicted to double compared with 2010.\u201d<\/p>\n

IBM\u2019s report, it seems, is bringing to bear our greatest fears. \u201c\u2019For years, observers have been wondering when malware would become a real problem for the latest generation of mobile devices. It appears that the wait is over,\u2019 said Tom Cross, manager of threat intelligence and strategy for IBM X-Force.\u201d IBM is advising IT departments everywhere to increase their vigilance (and maintain their software) by ensuring that anti-malware software and patches are kept up-to-date. Malware being delivered through SMS and the privacy risks that arise from personal devices that may not be secure are, of course, primary concerns for any network that might be compromised through a wireless connection with the infected devices.<\/p>\n

Not So Anonymous Anymore<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The report has identified a tripling in the amount of malicious activity between 2010 and 2011. The reason for this massive increase is due in no small part, \u201cto \u2018hacktivist\u2019 groups, such as LulzSec<\/a> and Anonymous<\/a>, using SQL injection attacks, and \u2018whaling\u2019 or spear-phishing, whereby company senior executives with access to critical data are targeted. Anonymous proxies have more than quadrupled compared with three years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Not all Bad<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Even though malware is on the rise, it\u2019s worth noting that the X-Force report found that web application vulnerabilities have decreased for the first time in five years. This can probably be attributed to the rise in more personalized and targeted attacks<\/a>. ComputerWeekly.com notes that IBM found, \u201clevels of vulnerabilities in web browsers and spam had also declined significantly while traditional attacks on weak passwords and databases were still commonplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

I Thought it was the Year of the Rabbit<\/strong><\/h2>\n

IBM\u2019s preamble to their analysis is a little chilling in what it predicts, and it should stand as a dire warning to anyone with a vested interest in maintaining security. \u201cAn explosion of breaches has opened 2011 with continuing, near daily new reports, marking this year as \u2018The Year of the Security Breach.\u2019 These breaches have been notable not just for their frequency, but for the presumed operational competency of many of the victims.\u201d The environment is changing, they go on to state, and in that snippet of knowledge we can begin to understand what\u2019s happening here.<\/p>\n

If 2011 is the \u2018Year of the Security Breach,\u2019 then what, in God\u2019s name, does 2012 have in store for us? If the victims, as IBM suggests, are atypical targets due to their high levels of \u2018operational competency,\u2019 then what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not in Kansas, anymore, Toto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, \u201cD\u2019Oh!\u201d Just when you thought you had things figured out, a new report from IBM states that desktop… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[11,9,10,8,7],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","category-spam","tag-allspammedup","tag-bot","tag-botnet","tag-malware","tag-spam","jsn-master"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1837,"href":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/1837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hidefideas.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}