Cyber-threat evolution: the past year

Abstract

It's time to sit back and take a look at what's been happening over the past 12 months in the IT security world. If we had to summarise the year in a single word, it would have to be ‘explosive’. The multitude of incidents, stories, facts, new trends and intriguing actors is so big that it makes it very hard to come up with the top 10 security stories of 2011. The aim of this list is to remind ourselves of the stories that also indicated major trends or the emergence of new major actors on the security scene. By looking at these stories, we can get an idea of what will happen in 2012 – which we'll cover in the next article. If we had to summarise the information security events and trends of the past year in a single word, it would have to be ‘explosive’. The multitude of incidents, stories, facts, new trends and intriguing actors is so big that it makes it hard to come up with the top 10 security stories of 2011. Nevertheless, Costin Raiu of Kaspersky has pulled together a list of 10 stories that indicate major trends or the emergence of new major actors on the security scene. These include the rise of hacktivism and successful hacking attacks against major organisations. They also include the rise of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), targeted malware, mobile malware and threats to the SSL/TSL systems on which the web depends.