Online ads are becoming biggest Security Threats

Online and mobile ads are one of the biggest threats to IT security this year, according to a Trend Micro report on the first quarter of 2015. The company’s latest report, ‘Bad Ads and Zero-Days: Reemerging Threats Challenge Trust in Supply Chains and Best Practices’, has revealed that adware on mobile devices is the top threat in the mobile category - although Trend Micro has identified a mammoth five million Android threats to date. It is, however, predicting this will rise to eight million by the end of this year.

Zero-day exploits are the biggest threat to desktop systems, but again, these are related to advertising and, in particular, are being used on adverts in Adobe software. This means victims don’t even need to head to a malicious site for their computer to be infected.

“It is clear 2015 is shaping up to be noteworthy in terms of volume, ingenuity and sophistication of attacks… It is clear businesses and individuals alike need to be proactive in protecting against threats. As a business, how would your IT Security policies look like in a Zero Trust Environment? An aggressive and different security posture is critical to keep financial, personal and intellectual property safe,” suggests Dhanya Thakkar, managing director, APAC, Trend Micro.

In the enterprise space, Trend Micro said the healthcare sector was most at risk of cyberattacks, specifically in iOS and POS system applications. However, these types of threats have existed for the last few years and it would appear that their widespread nature is down to companies not being prepared for such assaults.

“The question we have to ask is, “are we doing enough to protect ourselves from security threats? While we need to constantly update our systems to protect against new attacks, the first quarter of 2015 clearly showed we need to also watch out for older threats, and how no industry or system should feel exempt,” said Dhanya.