Virtualization, cloud-computing and a shifting Internet infrastructure is opening more opportunities for cybercrime, said Trend Micro, a leader in Internet content security, in its latest threat report.

Using news headlines and the latest technological trends, cybercriminals are brilliantly agile at exploiting whatever is trendy for cash and profit. Now, the growing popularity of cloud computing and virtualization among companies is likely to catch the attention of criminals scheming for the next hot cyber-swindle, 'Trend Micro 2010 Future Threat Report' stated.

The cloud computing and virtualisation - while offering significant benefits and cost-savings - move servers outside the traditional security perimeter and expand the playing field for cybercriminals, the report pointed out.

"The industry already witnessed Danger/Sidekick’s cloud-based server failure that caused major data outages in November 2009, highlighting cloud-computing risks that cybercriminals will likely abuse. Trend Micro believes cybercriminals will either be manipulating the connection to the cloud, or attacking the data center and cloud itself."

The “next-generation” protocol designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force, Internet Protocol v. 6, is still in the experimentation stages of replacing the current IPv4, now 20 years old.

As users start to explore IPv6, so will cybercriminals, and we can expect to see proof-of-concept elements in IPv6 start to materialize in the upcoming new year. Possible avenues for abuse include new covert channels or C&C. But don’t expect active targeting of IPv6 address space—at least not in the very immediate future, it said.

According to Trend Micro, the domain names are becoming more internationalised and the introduction of regional top- level domains (Russian, Chinese, and Arabic characters) will create new opportunities to launch age-old attacks through lookalike domains for phishing – using Cyrillic characters in place of similar looking Latin characters.

Trend Micro has predicted in the report that this would lead to reputation problems and abuse that will challenge security companies.

According to the report, social media and social networks will be used by cybercriminals to enter the users’ “circle of trust.” Social engineering will continue to play a big role in the propagation of threats, it said.

But given the increasing saturation of social media with content intended to be shared via online social interactions, cybercriminals will definitely try to penetrate and compromise popular communities more than ever in 2010, Trend Micro noted.

Social networks, the report said, are also ripe venues for stealing personally identifiable information (PII).

"The quality and quantity of data posted openly by most trusting users on their profile pages, combined with interaction clues, are more than enough for cybercriminals to stage identity thefts and targeted social engineering attacks."

The situation will worsen in 2010, with high-profile personalities suffering from online impersonators or stolen bank accounts, the report pointed out.

"The threat landscape has shifted and we are no longer seeing global outbreaks like Slammer or CodeRed. Even the much covered Conficker incident of 2008 and early 2009 was not a global outbreak by its true definition; rather it was a carefully orchestrated and architected attack," Trend Micro said.

"Moving forward, localized and targeted attacks are expected to grow in their number and sophistication," the report added.

In its key forecasts, Trend Micro said Windows 7 will have an impact from cybercrime since it is less secure than Vista in the default configuration.

With malware changing its shape – every few hours, risk mitigation is not as viable an option anymore–even with alternative Browsers /alternative operating systems. Drive-by infections are the norm and one Web visit is enough to get infected, the report added.-TradeArabia News Service