Experts predict no let-up in malcode development

Kaspersky and Russinovich warn of growth in Vista, non-Windows malware.

Security experts have been making predictions for the future of malware and anti-malware developments, with some strongly worded warnings about the vulnerability of

Windows Vista

, as well as other platforms yet to be greatly affected by such threats.

Windows

internals expert Mark Russinovich, speaking at the

CanSecWest

conference in Vancouver, discussed in detail the benefits of UAC and other security controls included with

Microsoft

‘s latest operating system version, but concluded that such measures will prove little barrier to the development of malware for the platform. He predicted a movement towards social-engineering based attacks, taking advantage of the role user interaction plays in bypassing the UAC controls. Some analysis of his ideas can be found

here

.

In London for the

InfoSec

conference this week, Eugene Kaspersky has been making similarly gloomy comments on

Vista

security, which is generally held to be a considerable improvement over previous

Windows

versions but remains an open target for attack. Kaspersky speculated that bad publicity about

Vista

security issues could drive more users to non-

Windows

platforms such as

Apple

‘s

Mac OS X

or

Linux

, and that as financial rewards for targeting such platforms grow, malware creators will devote more time to developing attacks to exploit weaknesses that are sure to be discovered.

He also discussed the possibility of malware for new hardware devices including mobile phones and popular home games consoles – see

here

for a

McAfee

blog posting on a possible

Nintendo Wii

threat, thanks to a flaw in

Opera

. A

PC Pro

interview with the head of

Kaspersky Labs

is

here

, and details of a cybercrime forum, to be held at InfoSec tomorrow with Kaspersky and other experts discussing the future of security, are

here

.

Posted on 24 April 2007 by

Virus Bulletin