Security vendor McAfee has predicted that the increasing popularity of video on the web will make it a future target for hackers.

The use of video formats on social-networking sites — such as YouTube — will attract malware writers, the company claims. As people become more reluctant to open email attachments from anonymous sources, hackers will target users who open media files instead.

The functionality of online video, which includes pop-up ads and URL redirects, will become “ideal tools of destruction for malware writers,” claimed McAfee in a statement. “As video-sharing networks on the web proliferate, the potential capture of a large audience will incite malware writers to exploit these channels for monetary gain.”

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News source: ZDNet

Years ago it was hackers who were doing it for the bragging rights, now it’s criminals. The motivation has changed, hacking is now profitable and there’s so much money to be made with very little risk to the actual hackers.

Interestingly enough IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is still being utilized to start attacks and for communications amongst the bad guys. There are more secure means of communications available but they are still using IRC. They are not worried about being caught they are blatantly doing these things out in the open. Though the good ones are communicating less which makes it harder to track them. Their focus has shifted to make money in which case they naturally don’t want to make a name for themselves, so there’s less bragging involved, less communication.

Over the past year or two we have seen a tremendous amount of acceleration of adaptability on the part of the hackers, the minute there’s a new security tool out there, the bad guys find a way around it. Spam is a good example, nobody has been able to stop it. Recently you see spam that comes in form of distorted or disguised images, so it’s even harder to filter it. It’s amazing how fast the bad guys are staying ahead of us.

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News source: Hack Report

One in five American parents believe their children are spending too much time on the Internet, although most say the online activities haven’t affected grades either way.

In a study to be released today by the University of Southern California, 21 percent of adult Internet users with children believe the children are online too long, compared with 11 percent in 2000. Still, that’s less than the 49 percent who complain their children watch too much TV.

About 80 percent of the children say the Internet is important for schoolwork, although three-quarters of the parents say grades haven’t gone up or down since they got Internet access.

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News source: chron.com

Criminal gangs using hijacked computers are behind a surge in unwanted e-mails peddling sex, drugs and stock tips.

The number of “spam” messages has tripled since June and now accounts for as many as nine out of 10 e-mails sent worldwide, according to U.S. email security company Postini.

As Christmas approaches, the daily trawl through in-boxes clogged with offers of fake Viagra, loans and sex aids is tipped to take even longer.

“E-mail systems are overloaded or melting down trying to keep up with all the spam,” said Dan Druker, a vice president at Postini.

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News source: CNN

When most of us think of YouTube, we think of crazy videos of skateboarders crashing, or pudgy teenagers pretending to be Star Wars action heroes. Such “user-created content” does make up a hefty part of YouTube’s repository, but according to several demographic surveys, the types of people who are watching it are not what people might assume at first. In fact, ther’re mostly the people that the TV networks hate to see leave.

According to an eMarketer audience report, the group of people who watch YouTube videos the most are the 35-64 group, at 54.5 percent. In contrast, people aged from 2-34 comprise 41.3 percent of YouTube viewers, with the 25-34 subgroup comprising 19.1 percent of the total. Kids aged 12-17 made up only 12.6 percent of the total.

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EBay was the online winner this “Black Friday,” data published on Saturday showed, but overall Internet traffic growth was well below last year’s even as bargain hunters tracked down sought-after toys and electronics on the Web before “Cyber Monday.”

Overall traffic to the Nielsen/Net Ratings Holiday eShopping Index, which tracks more than 120 online retailers, rose 12 percent on the Friday after Thankgiving over the same day last year, according to the online audience measurement firm.

That is significantly below the 29 percent growth in overall traffic to the index from 2004 to 2005 and more in line with 11 percent growth seen from 2003 to 2004.

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News source: Yahoo! News

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that bloggers and participants in Internet bulletin board groups cannot be sued for posting defamatory statements made by others.

In deciding a case closely watched by free speech groups, the court said a federal law gives immunity from libel suits not only to Internet service providers, like AOL, but also to bloggers and other users of their services.

“Subjecting Internet service providers and users to defamation liability would tend to chill online speech,” today’s unanimous ruling said.

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News source: MSNBC

Webroot Software Inc., known for its anti-spyware program Spy Sweeper, is bringing back a product to help parents limit where and how long their children go online.

Child Safe joins Web filtering programs like Net Nanny, CYBERsitter and ContentProtect in the parental-control arena. The program is listed for $39.95 for a one-year subscription for use on up to three computers.

One of Webroot’s early products was a similar program, but it was discontinued because demand at the time wasn’t heavy. Amid concerns of online predators finding teens through social networking sites or chat rooms, the time is right to bring it out again, CEO David Moll said.

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News source: Forbes

The biggest online holiday shopping day is not, as it turns out, the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Only 10 percent of Americans surveyed online said they will shop on the Web on so-called Cyber Monday, according to a report published Monday by MasterCard. The survey was conducted by Ipsos Insight for the credit card company.

Last year, the day with the highest amount of Web transactions processed was actually December 5, a week after Cyber Monday, according to MasterCard’s worldwide data for 2005. However, a survey by online retail trade group Shop.org of its members found that their busiest day last year was December 12. Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation (NRF), released results of its own study of holiday e-commerce on Monday.

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News source: News.com