- Email: [email protected]
Events
FEATURE/CALENDAR ...Continued from page 19 the mobile browser or adding news shortcuts and bookmarks to the phone. Plankton is one of the top 10 most common viruses across all categories putting it in the same category as the top PC viruses. The days of mobile malware lagging behind their PC counterparts are over. With Plankton alone, there are more than five million infected devices.
2013: New modes of attack Last year marked the arrival of FakeDefend, the first ransomware for Android mobile phones. Disguised as an anti-virus tool, this malware works in a similar way to the fake anti-virus on PCs. It locks the phone and requires the victim to pay a ransom (in the form of an exorbitantly high anti-virus subscription fee, in this case) in order to retrieve the contents of the device. However, paying the ransom does nothing for the phone which must be reset to factory settings in order to restore functionality. It was also in 2013 that Chuli appeared, the first targeted attack including Android malware. The email account of an activist of the World Uyghur Conference, held 11-13 March 2013 in Geneva, was used to target the accounts of other Tibetan Human Rights activists and advocates. The emails sent from the hacked account included Chuli as an attachment. That malware was designed to collect data such as incoming SMS, contacts of the SIM card and phone, location information, and recorded phone calls. All this information was then sent to a remote server. One can consider 2013 as the year of ‘turning pro’ for mobile attacks. More targeted and more sophisticated malware, like FakeDefend or Chuli, are examples of attacks that can be compared to those we know of today in the PC world. Moreover, with an attack like Chuli, it’s perfectly reasonable to ask whether we are entering into an era of mobile cyber-war and the beginning 20
Computer Fraud & Security
of the potential involvement of governments and others national organisations in the origin of these attacks.
EVENTS 8–9 September 2014
What’s next?
Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit
In the area of cybercrime, it is always difficult to predict what will happen next year and even more so over the next 10 years. The landscape of mobile threats has changed dramatically over the past decade and the cyber-criminal community continues to find new and increasingly ingenious ways of using these attacks for one sole purpose – making money. However, with the explosion of smartphones and other mobile technologies, a reasonable prediction is the convergence of mobile and PC malware. Beyond mobile devices, the most likely future target for cyber-criminals is the Internet of Things (IoT). While it’s extremely difficult to forecast the number of connected objects on the market in the next five years, Gartner estimates 30 billion objects will be connected in 2020 whereas IDC estimates that market to be 212 billion. As more and more manufacturers and service providers capitalise on the business opportunity presented by these objects, it’s reasonable to assume that security has not yet been taken into account in the development process of these new products. Will the IoT be the Next Big Thing for the cyber-criminal?
London, UK http://gtnr.it/1jtxApk
About the author Axelle Apvrille is a senior mobile anti-virus analyst and researcher at Fortinet, based in France. She scans for malware on mobile phones and understands how they work in order to write signatures to block them. In particular, she has conducted research on the Symbian Yxes worm (EICAR) and Zitmo trojan (VB Mag). Before joining Fortinet, Apvrille worked for 12 years in cryptology, security protocols and operating systems. She has an extensive knowledge of computer security and has taught in several French engineering schools.
9–12 September 2014 44Con London, UK www.44con.com
16–19 September 2014 OWASP AppSec USA Denver, Colorado http://2014.appsecusa.org/2014/
22–24 September 2014 Cyber Intelligence Europe Brussels, Belgium www.intelligence-sec.com/events/cyberintelligence-europe-2014
23–27 September 2014 European ICS Security Summit Amsterdam, Netherlands http://www.sans.org/info/162697
25–26 September 2014 BruCON Ghent, Belgium http://brucon.org
29 September–2 October 2014 (ISC)2 Security Congress Atlanta, US https://congress.isc2.org/
13–16 October 2014 HITBSecConf Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia http://conference.hitb.org/
14–17 October 2014 Black Hat Europe Amsterdam, Netherlands www.blackhat.com/eu-14/
14–15 October 2014 Information Security Solutions Europe (ISSE) Brussels, Belgium www.isse.eu.com
August 2014
2013: New modes of attack Last year marked the arrival of FakeDefend, the first ransomware for Android mobile phones. Disguised as an anti-virus tool, this malware works in a similar way to the fake anti-virus on PCs. It locks the phone and requires the victim to pay a ransom (in the form of an exorbitantly high anti-virus subscription fee, in this case) in order to retrieve the contents of the device. However, paying the ransom does nothing for the phone which must be reset to factory settings in order to restore functionality. It was also in 2013 that Chuli appeared, the first targeted attack including Android malware. The email account of an activist of the World Uyghur Conference, held 11-13 March 2013 in Geneva, was used to target the accounts of other Tibetan Human Rights activists and advocates. The emails sent from the hacked account included Chuli as an attachment. That malware was designed to collect data such as incoming SMS, contacts of the SIM card and phone, location information, and recorded phone calls. All this information was then sent to a remote server. One can consider 2013 as the year of ‘turning pro’ for mobile attacks. More targeted and more sophisticated malware, like FakeDefend or Chuli, are examples of attacks that can be compared to those we know of today in the PC world. Moreover, with an attack like Chuli, it’s perfectly reasonable to ask whether we are entering into an era of mobile cyber-war and the beginning 20
Computer Fraud & Security
of the potential involvement of governments and others national organisations in the origin of these attacks.
EVENTS 8–9 September 2014
What’s next?
Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit
In the area of cybercrime, it is always difficult to predict what will happen next year and even more so over the next 10 years. The landscape of mobile threats has changed dramatically over the past decade and the cyber-criminal community continues to find new and increasingly ingenious ways of using these attacks for one sole purpose – making money. However, with the explosion of smartphones and other mobile technologies, a reasonable prediction is the convergence of mobile and PC malware. Beyond mobile devices, the most likely future target for cyber-criminals is the Internet of Things (IoT). While it’s extremely difficult to forecast the number of connected objects on the market in the next five years, Gartner estimates 30 billion objects will be connected in 2020 whereas IDC estimates that market to be 212 billion. As more and more manufacturers and service providers capitalise on the business opportunity presented by these objects, it’s reasonable to assume that security has not yet been taken into account in the development process of these new products. Will the IoT be the Next Big Thing for the cyber-criminal?
London, UK http://gtnr.it/1jtxApk
About the author Axelle Apvrille is a senior mobile anti-virus analyst and researcher at Fortinet, based in France. She scans for malware on mobile phones and understands how they work in order to write signatures to block them. In particular, she has conducted research on the Symbian Yxes worm (EICAR) and Zitmo trojan (VB Mag). Before joining Fortinet, Apvrille worked for 12 years in cryptology, security protocols and operating systems. She has an extensive knowledge of computer security and has taught in several French engineering schools.
9–12 September 2014 44Con London, UK www.44con.com
16–19 September 2014 OWASP AppSec USA Denver, Colorado http://2014.appsecusa.org/2014/
22–24 September 2014 Cyber Intelligence Europe Brussels, Belgium www.intelligence-sec.com/events/cyberintelligence-europe-2014
23–27 September 2014 European ICS Security Summit Amsterdam, Netherlands http://www.sans.org/info/162697
25–26 September 2014 BruCON Ghent, Belgium http://brucon.org
29 September–2 October 2014 (ISC)2 Security Congress Atlanta, US https://congress.isc2.org/
13–16 October 2014 HITBSecConf Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia http://conference.hitb.org/
14–17 October 2014 Black Hat Europe Amsterdam, Netherlands www.blackhat.com/eu-14/
14–15 October 2014 Information Security Solutions Europe (ISSE) Brussels, Belgium www.isse.eu.com
August 2014