New Year, New Fears (And Even More Of The Same Old Ones)

A just-released Commtouch Threat Trend Report puts the spotlight on user-generated content as one of the hottest arenas for malware and phishing attacks. In other words, the bad guys have met their allies and they are us.Security firm Commtouch has issued its Q4 Threats Trend Report, and its contents -- and warnings -- are a pretty good reminder that Web 2.0 has come of age.

And with it, Web 2.0 threats.

The essence of Web 2.0 -- personal interactivity, user generated content, with downloads and uploads, as well as streaming media -- are, it turns out, tailor made for the cyber thugs.

The more deeply engaged users become with Web content, the more they are adding to, commenting upon, downloading from and uploading to Web sites and services, the more opportunity the phishers and malware makers have to trick them into responding to a bit of bait, a bogus social network listing, a link that promises even more content, or meshed attacks involving some or all of these.

One wrong click is all it takes, and the crooks not only know it, they count on it.

Warn your people, and warn them as well that streaming media and download sites are now among the top 10 most infected sites on the Web.

As the new faces of attacks develop more recognizable features, the old ones are hardly going away. After a lovely, sharp, and all too brief decline after the McColo spam factory was shuttered, junk (and often malicious) spam rates have climbed skyward again, approaching pre-McColo levels once more.

The complete Commtouch Q4 Internet Threats Trend Report can be found here.