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Cybercriminals Shifting Focus To Non-Windows OSes

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the diversification-strategy dept.

Orome1 writes "In a major cybercrime turning point, scammers have begun shifting their focus away from Windows-based PCs to other operating systems and platforms, including smart phones, tablet computers, and mobile platforms in general, according to the a new Cisco report. The report also finds that 2010 was the first year in the history of the Internet that spam volume decreased, that cybercriminals are investing heavily in 'money muling,' and that users continue to fall prey to myriad forms of trust exploitation."

8 of 265 comments (clear)

  1. Thank God.... by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Will they please target the Linux platform so we can prove once and for all to all the Windows lovers that the underlying architecture protects better than the Windows design?

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    1. Re:Thank God.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's not really as true anymore, though. I'm not sure if this is the article I read on it, but http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsId=3235498

      Also, even if the underlying architecture protects better... you can't protect people from their own stupidity. They will *absolutely* find ways to infect their machines with malware even if it requires becoming root.

      Fucking users.

    2. Re:Thank God.... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What makes you think they haven't?

      What you've described would be completely unmeasurable - because the only way you can properly measure exploits is when they are successful. There is no way to distinguish between failing to exploit Linux and not attempting an exploit it at all.

    3. Re:Thank God.... by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apache holds 50% of the webserver market, often on Linux. Much more valuable targets than a generic PC.

    4. Re:Thank God.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Apache holds 50% of the webserver market, often on Linux. Much more valuable targets than a generic PC.

      No it is not. It is a professionally admined system that is outnumbered one to millions by clients where my malware will live happily undected for a long time, and where a couple of clean-ups - that is highly likely on the Apache server -- won't affect the malware network at all.

      And that people still thinks not running as root/admin is hugely important in this picture is strange 1) most malware lives quite happily in user space 2) besides social enginering to elevate, many silent escalation exploits exists for both Linux and osx 3) if you are conscious about security, you can't just wipe the user if you have a compromised system, you have no way of knowing if it hasn't been escalated outside user space.

    5. Re:Thank God.... by laughingcoyote · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And if you go look at the source code, you can find plenty of these exploits, I presume? I'll look forward to hearing about them with interest.

      The fact that bad guys can find a bug means good guys can find it too. Ultimately, that makes the whole platform more secure. Not perfectly secure, and there's no such thing, but awfully good.

      But feel free to repeat that old canard about using open source all over. In the meantime, those of us who depend on real machines with real security will use *nix, unless given absolutely no choice.

      --
      To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
  2. Macs are still no mans land by ub3r+n3u7r4l1st · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Common myth still spreading around that macs do not have viruses. Majority of its users still do not have anti-virus software of any kind.

    The pioneer who goes in first, strikes the gold.

    --
    New Economic Perspectives
  3. Re:OH NOES GOOGLE FIGHT!!! by 0123456 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    so acutally there is malware for linux and mac, why do you keep saying there isn't?

    Anyone can write malware for Linux: writing, say, a key-logger that looks for credit card numbers is essentially trivial.

    The problem is getting it onto PCs you don't control, which is vastly simpler in Windows than Linux because Windows has vastly more security flaws by design.