2011 InfoSec Predictions from Zscaler Labs

Its not only the season of giving and but forecasting as well, and I recently received the following Information Security Predictions from Zscaler Labs

• Flash mob hacktivism – we’ll see more attacks similar to Operation Payback, where like-minded strangers quickly organize and attack corporations or government entities in the name of a cause

• Niche malware designed to harvest confidential information from IP-connected devices such as printers and SCADA systems will grow

• Cloud-hosted botnets will grow

• We’ll hear about more indirect data breaches, where not it’s the company affected that was breached, but rather a third-party vendor or organization

• Social networks will become the main communication medium for attackers

• The Information security market will continue to shrink

An interesting list - more about trends than fundamentals - and you can find more details on the Zscaler blog.

IT Security Trends FreeMind map from 2008

I recently uploaded a large FreeMind map that I collected over 2008, in an effort to get a handle on the stream of security articles, reports and incidents taking place back then. In short there was a torrent and it remains much the same today. I think you might find the ad hoc classification of material useful, as well as the groups of sources.

Note that links to items from FIRST (Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams) are now broken since their once excellent news service has been discontinued.

All sources for my security and risk FreeMind maps are available here.