Brace Yourself for the Post-PC Threat Era

The bad news for a world gone mobile and social is that cyberthreats have followed the same direction. Security is more complicated and challenging than ever, with a multitude of new attack vectors available to increasingly sophisticated thieves. It's not just malware's proliferation to mobile and social platforms -- and even the Mac -- that's worrisome. It's the astonishing pace of its growth.

It was inevitable. As computing has evolved, so has its nemesis: malware.

in play "2012 is truly the year we entered the post-PC era as cybercriminals moved to embrace Android, social media platforms, and even Macs with their attacks," Trend Micro declared in its annual Security Roundup last week.

A characteristic of the post-PC threat landscape is the accelerated growth of malware, said Trend Micro CTO Raimund Genes.

"We saw mobile malware grow from zero to 350,000 in three years, while in the PC world, it took 14 years to reach that number," he told TechNewsWorld.

However, it's unfair to compare the nascent environment for malware writers in the PC era with the environment for mobile malware writers today, Genes noted.

"When the first PC viruses were written, they were written for fun," he explained. "There were no commercial interests behind them. All malware now is there to make money. That's a big change from the early PC days."

Another big change in the malware landscape is the industrialization of bad app production, according to the report.

"Beyond this move away from the PC, 2012 saw attackers focus on refining their attacks and adopting more professional software development practices rather than introducing new attack means," it said. "The Black Hole Exploit kit, automatic transfer systems (ATSs), and ransomware were all refined and improved in ways that would make any commercial software vendor proud."

Things won't be getting any better for malware fighters in 2013, Trend Micro predicted. Malware threats for Google's Android operating system alone will hit 1 million this year.