REPORT INDICATES CYBERCRIME WAVE IS SHIFTING TO MOBILE DEVICES AND APPLE PRODUCTS

The cybercrime wave is shifting away from attacks on Windows machines and migrating to the mobile marketplace, according to a just released yearly report from Cisco.  According to Cisco’s 2010 Annual Security Report, cybercriminals have shifted their focus to a number of areas ripe for exploitation, such as so-called “work-at-home” scams that are nothing more than enlisting people to serve as money mules for a number of illicit, though potentially very profitable, schemes. 

In 2009, spam was reduced in part due to the takedowns of botnets and ISPs restricting malicious email from broadband networks.  The Cisco report cited as one of its chief findings that computer users the world over are falling victim to exploits that prey on their inherent trust through a variety of social engineering scams – whether via email, social networking chat or phone calls. For example, scammers will try to dupe users into action by pretending to be an attractive man or woman, particularly on social networking sites. “People should assume that a flirtatious advance from someone they don’t know has a less-romantic purpose behind it,” the report warned.

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