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Life in the anti-virus bunker

Posted on 4 May 2006 at 10:42

Future threats

But despite the best efforts of Pob and the anti-virus community, new threats are emerging all the time. The next big concern for the security firms is VoIP, which is becoming increasingly popular in both businesses and homes.

'VoIP is one of those things companies should be looking at,' warns Pinkney. 'It's a great attack vector. We have some excellent data on VoIP vulnerabilities and it's gaining more interest. A year ago, we felt it was going to be a threat. If I'm a hacker, I want to target the individual at home who's using it to get to the company network.'

Pinkney says the explosive growth in services such as Skype are a red rag to a bull. 'Skype is huge - there are millions simultaneously using it. All of a sudden you've got two trojans trying to get access to the system Skype is using and...' he gesticulates an explosion with his hands. Even the spammers are moving in on the likes of Skype, sending junk ad messages to people's voicemail - a technique charmingly dubbed Spit.

There's also concern that hackers are growing ever more sophisticated and professional in their approach. 'You have to know your enemy,' says Pinkney, betraying his military background once more. 'Today's hackers are probably more educated. He'll take a long time, be more patient. Terrorist cells are created so that if one breaks down, you can't get to the core of the group. If a hacker gets taken down, there's no real connection to the guy who wants the data.'

The experts also warn that high-profile, mass attacks are becoming more rare, in favour of finely honed exploits that won't grab the attention of the world's media. 'They don't want 200,000 credit card numbers - it takes too long to process,' says Mark Harris, director of Sophos' Labs. 'They want 200 at a time. They don't like it being out of control. If they get it into the public's perception, more people will go out and buy anti-virus software. Their hope is we won't see it and they can carry on for weeks.'

With trojans and phishing scams raking in so much illicit money, it inevitably attracts the attention of the hard-core criminal element. Software piracy has long been linked to terrorism: is there any evidence that the hackers may also be working for the likes of Al Qaeda? 'We haven't seen any actual proof that terrorists are involved in virus writing,' says Cluley. 'We've seen 300 trojan horses sent to government agencies specifically to order. There are definitely signs of organised crime.'

Perhaps that nuclear bunker might come in handy one day, after all.

Author: Barry Collins