2012 will bring a total of over 2.5 million new viruses, a marked increase in malware dedicated to mobile devices and attacks against large organizations, according to the report released by the German IT security company G Data.
"One of the emerging issues from 2011, which will develop over the next 12 months, is malware for mobile platforms," said Eddy Willems, Security Evangelist at G Data.
"Devices with the Android operating system will be increasingly under fire as cyber-criminals are constantly finding new ways to attack its vulnerabilities. 2011 saw a rise in social engineering, where users installed infected apps on their devices, causing many to lose money and personal data. 2012 will be the year of banking Trojans as more people migrate to mobile platforms for online banking facilities. The banking Trojan malware can be bought quite easily and created individually by the attackers, which makes it a widespread threat," he said.
G Data also predicts an increase in attacks on companies and organizations. Duqu worm appearance in 2011 showed that criminals are interested in spying any company and are not targeting only high level companies as did the emergence of Stuxnet.
Duqu can be used in different ways to compromise data and to infiltrate a network with specialized attacks. Thus, the possibilities of using it to steal data or key information are vast, from spam to espionage, specialized targeted attacks or sophisticated phishing attacks, the report also shows.
Major events of the year, such as the Olympic Games, the 2012 Football European Championship or the U.S. presidential elections, will provide a perfect environment for offenders.
"We expect to see a steep incline in fake online ticket shops, website defacements, attacks at the venue sites and much more," says Willems.
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