3 Points Regarding Blog and Video Viruses

Evidence

The evidence that I see for blogs and videos to become highly used methods for virus transmittal is mainly the history and evolution of viruses and user handling/training.  The average user becomes accustomed to a particular level of security, then a new variant or method of intrusion comes along.  Right now social networking is gigantic and widely popular.  Users are commenting and writing blogs, watching video content, and participating on message boards as part of their everyday lives.  It only makes sense that virus, worm, and other malware creators are going to target these methods to further their mission.

New Opportunities for IT Technicians

There may not be NEW opportunities necessarily, but there also will not be any fewer positions for IT Technicians.  Despite rigorous security measures taken by organizations and users, there will always be new threats abounding and likely transmitted more so by way of blogs and videos.  IT Technicians will need to continue learning about new threats and threat carriers.

Skills

The most prevalent skills required of the IT Technician are learning and communication.  Learning is paramount so that the technician can stay on top of the upcoming threats and possibly ward them off or block them before they become a reality within the organization.  Communication is very important because transmission via blogs and videos is much more a social engineering technique of which the users need to be trained to be aware of.  The more aware the users are the less of a problem blog and video viruses may turn out to be.

New Routes for Worms

Worms as Dangerous as Ever is an article dated February 28, 2007 on PC World’s website.  While security efforts to combat worms have greatly improved and been successful, worm creators have modified their ways of spreading their disease.  The latest trend has features a worm quietly sitting on a social networking site (message boards, blogs, videos, etc.) until user action prompts activity.  Current worms have reportedly installed malware to track and steal financial information.  Orthers spread variants of themselves across the internet to unsuspecting users.

The worms have been able to remain under the radar of most antivirus software programs, therefore increasing the likelihood that a user’s computer can become infected by a virus transmitted via worm picked up at a recently used message board, blog, video, etc.  This means that blogs and videos have become not just a new route for worms and malware, but also viruses.

Just as users were trained to not open unknown email and attachments, they will have to be trained on safe blogging and video watching.  Just because they’re using an antivirus program does not mean they’re totally safe from worm infestation.

Blog Pollution

PC World’s article Comment and Trackback Span Pollutes Blogs dated March 30, 2007 covers blog spam.  As they point out, the protection available is lacking.  Although spam does not necessarily mean viruses, it is another type of security breach and often acts as a carrier of viruses and other malware.

There are three main ways spammers get their messages into blogs:

1. Content Spam
2. Trackback Spam
3. Spam Blogs, or ‘Splogs’

Blog spamming has become such a major issue for some sites that they must resort to shutting down their site.  This is unfortunate since the blog readers will lose a valuable resource.

Blog and Video Viruses

These days just about every website has a blog.  Blogs are used extensively for personal and business use on a regular basis.  They provide a great forum for providing information and gaining feedback by way of online comments.  This makes them a very important web tool.  In fact, the regular use of blogs help a website climb to the top of search engine results.  This is due to updating the web content via blogging.

Sharing videos has also risen in popularity.  Numerous web sites have emerged with the sole purpose of sharing videos.

Blogging is already used quite heavily in the business world and I suspect that using and sharing videos will also find it’s place.  I predict that viruses dessiminated via blog and video will become a prevalent threat to corporate networks.  Universities and colleges will also face this threat at a high degree, thanks to their open environment necessary to support such a wide range of services and users.

Trends and Predictions

This is the first post to my segment on trends and predictions in the realm of technology.  These predictions will be compiled from my thoughts based on research and experience.  My goal is to identify the direction that technogical trends are heading towards.  Hopefully this will develop a list of technologies worth keeping an eye on and help to be prepared for what the future holds.  Especially when it comes to information security, the most powerful defense is knowledge and information!