New Technology and Usage Are Boon to Hackers

The spread of mobile networking systems along with the use of social media have opened new backdoors for hackers with potentially serious consequences, according to a leading security expert speaking at TechNet Asia-Pacific 2011. Tom Reilly, vice president and general manager, HP Enterprise Security, told the Wednesday breakfast audience that this major information technology transformation is leading to an escalation of attacks, especially against applications, and cyberspace will be a more dangerous place as a result. "Things are going to be much uglier in the cybercrime world," Reilly declared. He added that our adversaries are evolving away from traditional marauders. Many of them now are working at the behest of nation states. And, of course, they constantly are improving their sophistication. Ironically, while mobile computing has increased risk, the move to cloud computing may improve security. Reilly explained that the cloud provider would be responsible for security compliance, so individual users and groups would not be as much of a weak link in the security chain.