Beware: Social networking scams on the move

You may have ducked the worst of the hack attacks this year, but slicker, more menacing forms of cybercrime are on their way to your systems. In its 2009 annual security report, Cisco systems warns that smart cybercriminals are moving on from phishing and instant messaging malware.

"Social media and the data-theft Trojans are the things that are really in their ascent," Patrick Peterson, a Cisco researcher, told Computerworld.com. "You can see them replacing a lot of the old-school things."

Among the newcomers, Peterson points to the Koobface worm, which spreads via Facebook and Twitter. Koobface asks victims to look at a fake YouTube video, which ultimately leads to a malicious download. Cisco estimates that Koobface has now infected more than 3 million computers, and security vendors expect social network attacks to be a major problem in 2010.

Then there's the Zeus password-stealing Trojan that infected 4 million computers in 2009. Zeus was used to hack into bank accounts, and it's been linked to about $100 million in bank losses.

Don't look now but older types of attacks such as instant messaging worms and phishing are on the decline, according to Peterson. Spam is still on the rise, however. Cisco expects it to rise between 30 and 40 percent over the next year, according to Peterson. That means that hack attacks remain your No. 1 problem regardless of the size of your business or the kind of security systems you have in place. So it's important not just to beware but to be cautious and proactive in the new year.

For more on growing hack threats:
- check out this Computerworld.com article

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