Have we stumbled upon the Farmers Almanac of Security
Could it be possible that the Chinese Calendar has been successfully predicting the trends and methods of security activity in a given year? Could the Chinese Zodiac be used to predict the security future like the Farmers Almanac predicts the weather? We are about to close out 2009 the year of the Earthy Ox as defined by the Chinese calendar.
It is ironic that the traits of the Ox are the same traits that hackers embraced this year. Theodora Lau describes the Ox personality traits like this,
People born in the year of the ox are steady, plain and quiet. They arrange things systematically and they are patient and tireless.You could confidently apply these same traits to the attack trends and types that rocked 2009. So is it a coincidence that the birth traits forecasted in the Chinese calendar map so well to the security activity traits this year? Well I hope it is since 2010, the year of the Tiger, has these traits according to Theodora Lau,
A person born in the year of the tiger is selfish by nature. If his self-motive is brought into question, then money, honor, and power will mean nothing to him. When such a person suffers setbacks, he can become very mean. The desire for revenge may drive him to do anything. He can’t bear being ignored or looked down upon. Although he can keep calm on important matters, he will lose his temper in such situations.Lets take a look at this in a bit more detail and see if my theory has any merit. First lets start with 2009. I’ll make an attempt at matching up the birth traits of people born in the year of the Ox with excerpts from security reports released by the security industry this year. Ox’s: ” People born in the year of the ox are steady, plain and quiet. They arrange things systematically and they are patient and tireless.” Sophos Security threat report 2009: ” Today’s internet attacks are organized and designed to steal information and resources from consumers and corporations.” Symantec Security Trends of 2009: ” Attackers secretly infecting Internet surfers by compromising legitimate Web sites continued to grow in popularity. In 2008, Symantec observed a total of 18 million drive-by download infection attempts; however, from just August to October of 2009 alone, Symantec observed 17.4 million.”
Ox’s: “Their dauntless character and logical way of thinking is covered up by their plain appearance.” Sophos Security threat report 2009: “cybercriminals are planting malicious code on innocent websites. This code then simply lies in wait and silently infects visiting computers.” Symantec Report: Rogue Security Software: “New ways to conduct Internet fraud continue to be unleashed on the unsuspecting public. One of the growing trends is the use of misleading
software programs.”
Ox’s: Not many people could equal the resolution and fearlessness the Ox exhibits when deciding to accomplish a task or an objective. Symantec Report: “it is clear that the breadth of security problems in the past year was pretty stunning. • A 9x increase in the amount of spam messaging containing malware • More than 43 million rogue security software installations • 14.4 million drive-by download attempts in one two-month period • In May 2009, 95% of all email was spam • 403 data breaches in 2009, resulting in 220 million exposed records” Sophos Threat Report: “The scale of this global criminal operation has reached such proportions that Sophos discovers one new infected webpage every 4.5 seconds – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
Now let’s take a quick look at the predictions of the Chinese zodiac in 2008, the year of the rat. Rat: “People born in the year of the mouse have a natural instinct for loving money.” Cisco Security Review 2008: “Successful online criminals are making millions or hundreds of millions of dollars from their enterprises. These profits continue to drive innovation and specialization. Like the legitimate Internet economy they shadow, the online criminal world has become a global, thriving network of product and service providers and consumers doing business together. In the short term, this specialization and collaboration are making online criminals more nimble and effective.” Symantec Report: “cyber crime now generates more money than drug trafficking, says global cyber security solutions provider Symantec.” “Cyber crime has surpassed drug trafficking as a criminal money-maker. Every three seconds, an identity is stolen worldwide,” says Symantec consumer business unit vice-president for Asia-Pacific David Freer.
Rat: “Sometimes, people born in the year of the mouse live in groups. They don’t care if there is another mouth to feed. They will let friends or relatives live in their homes, but they can always find something for them to do.” Cisco Annual Security Report 2008: “Criminals are embracing technical innovation, and collaborating with other enterprises to develop new strategies for generating income. Botnet owners, for example, are working together to build partnerships and maximize profits.” “We see many signs that criminals are mimicking the practices embraced by successful, legitimate businesses to reap revenue and grow their enterprises,” said Tom Gillis, Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Security Products. “It seems the best practices espoused by Fortune magazine and Harvard Business School have found their way into the online underworld.”
Rat: “People born in the year of the mouse are able to keep secrets, but they enjoy finding out the secrets of other people. They may use such information as a weapon and are not satisfied until they have achieved someone’s destruction. They seek loopholes without feeling shame. In a word, they lose no chances. Cisco Annual Security Report 2008: ” online criminals are using malware to steal consumer and company data online. Hackers are also getting their hands on data by breaking into insecure or weak systems and devices. And sometimes, insiders are the culprits.” Just like folks use the zodiacs to predict their future and use the farmers almanac to predict future weather patterns it looks like we can also use the Chinese zodiac to predict security trends. Just like the other zodiac predictions, for me they are based more on fun than any basis in reality. This blog was written in that spirit so don’t go taking it too seriously. It is always fun to read your zodiac and see how correct it is. Now we can read the Chinese zodiac and see how accurately it is predicting the future of cybercrime! Enjoy! Read the Chinese zodiacs I quoted from here: http://www.herongyang.com/2009 You can find the Symantec, Cisco and Sophos reports I quoted from at their respective websites. So what do you think, have I stumbled onto a winner!? Perhaps I should start writing a monthly security zodiac with predictions of the next month.
The opinions and information presented here are my PERSONAL views and not those of my employer. I am in no way an official spokesperson for my employer.More from Jamey Heary: Credit Card Skimming: How thieves can steal your card info without you knowing it Why you should always shred your boarding pass Video rental records are afforded more privacy protections than your online dataThe truth about new SSL attacks 2009 Top Urban Legends in IT Security/a>Go to Jamey’s Blog for more articles on security.*
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