With a new year comes new threats to your online security; today McAfee released their 2013 Threat Predictions report. We got a chance to read the full report and talk with McAfee Threat Researcher Ryan Sherstobitoff about the ways that cybercriminals are evolving their malicious techniques. Below are a couple of the top online threat predictions of 2013 and what you can do to help protect yourself:
Mobile
To help protect your smartphone in 2013 it is important to always make sure your phone's operating system is up-to-date. This can help protect you from mobile worms that buy malicious apps without your consent and ransomware kits that allow criminals to extort payments from you. In addition, the new attack on the rise in 2013 is malware that actually blocks important security updates to your phone. This is more common in smartphones that have been ?rooted? or ?unlocked.? Thus, even though you might get some fun features out of it, it is safer not to do this so that your phone can keep receiving security updates.
Windows 8
Though the new Windows 8 will be more secure, McAfee points out that criminals will figure out a way to get around it. They predict that more and more users will be tricked into revealing information or installing malicious programs with cybercriminals' evolved phishing techniques. So if you do upgrade to Windows 8, do not solely rely on the built-in security to keep you safe. You must always make sure that your security software is updated as well as all of your computer programs. If you need to install security software onto your PC, check out our comparison chart so you can find the right one for you.
"Big-Scale" attacks on businesses
Rather than the attacking users' servers and computers for the benefit of financial gain or access to intellectual property, there have been several recent attacks where the only goal was to cause as much damage as possible. "We expect this malicious behavior to grow in 2013," McAfee wrote in their report. The best way to help protect yourself against these sort of attacks is to make sure all of your data is backed up off-location. It would be beneficial for consumers and businesses to back up their systems incrementally with an online backup service, so if a catastrophe were to occur, no data would be lost.
Resolve to protect yourself in 2013!?As we mentioned above, be sure your computer and smartphone operating systems are always updated, your Internet security software is up-to-date and your computers are being incrementally backed up with an online backup service. In addition to these security tips, Threat Researcher Ryan Sherstobitoff also advised that it is important for users to be weary of all links and to make sure that they are authentic before clicking, always. Check out McAfee's full 2013 Threat Predictions report here.
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