Chapter 6
Threats to the Digital Economy
Increased use of the Internet, particularly for downloading digital media and
conducting financial transactions, has been accompanied by an expanding array of
threats to users’ computer performance and personal information. In many cases,
well-established threats such as spam and spyware have been adapted to pose new
threats such as phishing emails and keystroke-logging programs. It is ironic that
these threats to the digital economy rely on technological advances by the digital
economy. Viruses and worms are usually spread through the Internet, spam is
possible only by the development of email server technology, and piracy of copyrighted
material has become increasingly problematic with the improvements in file
downloading and CD replication technologies.
Concern about Internet security threats is not always accompanied by the
willingness or ability to take steps that would minimize corporate or personal
exposure. A late 2006 survey found that 91 percent of companies considered viruses
and malware to be a medium or high threat and 86 percent considered spam to be
a medium or high threat. About 72 percent considered the external interception of
confidential data to be a medium or high threat, though only 25 percent had
implemented messaging encryption solutions to reduce that threat.1
Similarly, while
most Internet users are familiar with cookies and their privacy-related implications,
one study found that only 28 percent of those who tried to delete cookies from their
computers were actually able to do so.2
There will be a constant evolution of the techniques and technologies used by
both cyber-criminals and the law enforcement agencies that try to catch them.
According to PC World, the top five computer security stories of 2006 were (1) the
increase in partnerships between computer hackers and criminal gangs and the
resulting increase in phishing, (2) the growth in zero-day attacks, which exploit
flaws in common software to install malicious content on computers, (3) the
continued growth of junk email, (4) the appearance of worms that use MySpace.com,
and (5) Microsoft’s plan, later reversed, to keep its security technology inaccessible
to third-party security vendors.3
On the horizon are still newer threats. One
potential target is Internet feed services such as RSS (Real Simple Syndication),
which represents a new way for hackers to deliver keystroke loggers, Trojan horses,
and other malware.4
Interestingly, the tendency for malware to be propagated on peer-to-peer (P2P)
networks has had the positive side effect of reducing piracy, since people are less
likely to download copyrighted materials due to the risk of infecting their computers.
Symantec believes that the use of P2P networks as a propagation mechanism of
malicious code will continue to grow. P2P networks were used by 47 percent of
the malicious code that was propagated in the last six months of 2006.