Symantec announces its 2014 security predictions based on trends that have been taking place throughout 2013. Symantec predicts that consumers will begin taking active steps to keep their information private; scammers, data collectors and cybercriminals will not ignore any social network; the “Internet of Things” will become the “Internet of Vulnerabilities;” and mobile apps will prove that you can like yourself too much.
“It is vital that consumers and enterprises in Saudi Arabia understand the cyber threats in the region, and how to protect against sophisticated, targeted attacks,” said Samer Sidani, Country Manager, Saudi Arabia, Symantec. “According to the 2013 Norton Report, 64% of working adults in Saudi Arabia use their personal mobile device for both work and play, introducing new security risks. By outlining our predictions for 2014, Symantec encourages consumers and businesses to take proactive measures to protect their valuable information.”
People will finally begin taking active steps to keep their information private.
Privacy issues have littered the headlines in 2013, delivering a wake-up call to people and businesses about the amount of personal information we share and that is collected every day by everyone from your doctor to your social network. You can expect to see privacy protection as a feature in new and existing products. You’ll also see a resurgence of users adopting aliases and fake names on social networking sites to protect their privacy. Given this, more people will move to new, upstart and niche social networking sites, in an attempt to hang with their friends in obscurity.
Scammers, data collectors and cybercriminals will not ignore any social network, no matter how “niche” or obscure.
It’s tempting to believe that you can move to a new neighborhood and all your old problems will go away. They don’t in real life and they won’t when it comes to social networking. Any new social network that attracts users will also attract scammers and miscreants. If something sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is a scam. Protect yourself by using security best practices no matter where you are on the Internet, or how you connect to it.
The “Internet of Things” becomes the “Internet of Vulnerabilities.”
You can expect dumb things will get smarter in 2014. With millions of devices connected to the Internet—and in many cases running an embedded operating system—in 2014, they will become a magnet for hackers. Security researchers have already demonstrated attacks against smart televisions, medical equipment and security cameras. Major software vendors have figured out how to notify customers and get patches for vulnerabilities to them. The companies building gadgets that connect to the Internet don’t even realize they have an oncoming security problem. These systems are not only vulnerable to an attack – they also lack notification methods for consumers and businesses when vulnerabilities are discovered. Even worse, they don’t have a friendly end-user method to patch these new vulnerabilities. Given this, we are going to see new threats in ways in which we’ve never seen before.
Mobile apps will prove that you can like yourself too much.
It is not surprising that with 48 percent of people sleeping with their smart phones, they are lulled into a (false) sense of security about them. In 2013, we reported on a mobile app that would secure additional “likes” for your postings on Instagram. All you had to do was hand over your login and password to some guy in Russia. More than 100,000 people saw nothing wrong with that. We trust our mobile devices and the wonderful apps that run on them to make our lives better. The bad guys are going to take advantage of this big time in 2014. Mobile apps are going to be behind hoaxes, cons and scams of all sorts in 2014.