Disguising the dangers: hiding attacks behind modern masks

Abstract

There's a well-known proverb that says, “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. Unfortunately, this can often prove to be the case with our attempts to provide security. Just when we start to get a grip on the nature of the threats and what to look out for, the changing face of the technology we use can serve to confound our efforts. As the technologies change, they can enable old threats to persist in a new guise. Such a pattern has been seen many times with malware, which has managed to hijack a succession of new technologies (from email through to social networks, from desktops through to mobile devices), thus ensuring that as soon as users have been educated and trained to be aware of the threat in one context, it pops up in another that they are not expecting. A variety of technologies aims to simplify users' interactions with their devices and online services. Unfortunately, in some cases, there is potential for these to come at the expense of security and protection, or at least to amplify the risk from the user perspective. Prof Steven Furnell of Plymouth University examines the phenomenon and shows how these simplifications of the navigation experience can potentially be used to disguise malicious links. And he examines how the simplified online fraud protection to be found on some mobile devices can expose users to phishing threats.