Shifting sands: AVG's take on emerging security trends

David Heath
Tuesday, 21 June 2011 22:09

Business IT - Security

There are two independent, but highly connected, moves that will combine to deliver instability in what's left of SMBs' trust in the on-line world.

In a telephone interview earlier today, AVG's CTO Yuval Ben-Itzhak told iTWire that there are two very distinct trends that are undermining what little security is left for SMBs in the on-line world.

Speaking to the company's latest "Threat Report," Ben-Itzhak pointed firstly to the recent US court decision which cast strong doubt on the prevailing principle that ANY banking hack that caused monetary loss was ALWAYS the bank's fault.  Of course there are plenty of countering decisions, but this one could well be the first of many.  Many small business owners will lose sleep over the realisation that they must now be actively involved in their own banking security.

Ben-Itzhak observes, "It was the responsibility of the business, that they didn't take enough security measures to protect themselves and the bank [won] the case.  That is something that is a 'red alert' to a lot of small businesses today."

This means "It's not always the bank that takes all the losses."

This topic probably also just made its way to be number-one on the latest Auditors' check-list.

The second, and somewhat boarder point is that the "naughty-boys of the Internet" are now MUCH more interested in monetising their exploits.  According to the report, "cybercriminals are utilizing the knowledge, experience and tactics to explore 'new markets' to increase revenue from their operation. These criminals are performing even more sophisticated attacks in order to steal assets that can later be used to simplify other, more sophisticated, attacks. Although we have not seen any specific technical innovation by these criminals this quarter, we did find business innovation and creativity that are not less important for them. As we mentioned in the past, and will probably be said in the future, cybercrime is growing and will continue to grow with great financial success for the criminals operating it."

Ben-Itzhak continues.