Panda Security Insight

This week our PR department issued a press release compiling some of the awards and recognitions that we have obtained this year. I wanted to thank all of you that have made this possible: to begin, thanks to the Panda team in all the 56 countries where we are present, but also a very special thanks to all the media, bloggers, testers, institutions, customers and all users of our products. You all help us improve every day!

We are very proud about the progress that we have done in 2009 in bringing our “20-years-old start-up” (as we like to call it) to the next level and look forward to 2010 to continue working with you.

Before ending, let me share with you that on Friday we learnt that we have been nominated for the Financial Times-ArcelorMittal Boldness in Business award, within the category of “Newcomer”. We are delighted to share the nomination with an impressive list of companies (Twitter, Spotify, Zopa and Synthetic Genomics are the other four candidates in this category). The winner will be announced at the end of February in London.

I am convinced that the strategic shift that we have taken by taking advantage of our very advanced cloud security technology and how it has been applied to our consumer and corporate solutions (www.cloudantivirus.com and cloudprotection.pandasecurity.com) has played a key role in our nomination. And we are delighted about it … it will allow us to get our solutions known by a even wider audience. Thanks again.

Tweet This Post 

Uncategorized

At this time of year, security companies usually try to predict what will happen during the coming year. Here are my ‘predictions’ (which are also those of our anti-malware laboratory, of course :-)).

The cloud is here. Many of us already use it, probably without realizing. Who doesn’t use Hotmail or Gmail to check email and Flicker to store photos? Cloud-based services are not only limited to storage, but also to data processing. This is a tool that can save companies considerable investment, and as such it is becoming increasingly popular. In the security area, the market is constantly evolving towards real-time, cloud-based protection. In 2009, Panda has already launched the first security products based exclusively in the cloud…

Malware. Unfortunately, the amount of malware will not decrease in 2010. On the contrary, it will continue increasing exponentially. Due to the greater efficiency and speed provided by cloud-based technologies, malware creators will probably create more samples to evade detection and removal. The purpose, however, will not change: infections will continue to be geared towards financial profit. Consequently, fake antiviruses (rogueware), bots and banker Trojans will still rule the roost.

Social engineering techniques will continue to be popular among the criminal fraternity, particularly those targeting search engines (BlackHat SEO) and social networks, along with ‘drive-by-download’ infections from Web pages. In the case of social networks, we have seen numerous examples of worms and Trojans affecting Twitter, Facebook, etc. Malware-creators tend to go where large numbers of users are. These platforms will therefore be one of the main targets.

Windows 7… How will Windows 7 affect malware development? Considerably, we believe, given the warm welcome that the market has given to this operating system. As practically all new computers are coming with Windows 7 64-bit, criminals will be busy adapting malware to the new environment.

…and Mac. The market share of Mac PCs has increased over the last few years. Although there are still not enough users to make the platform as profitable as PCs, it is becoming gradually more attractive to cyber-crooks. Like PCs, Mac computers are used to access social networks, check email and surf the Web (the main malware distribution channels used by cyber-criminals). Mac is no longer a safe haven against malware. In 2009 we have already seen numerous attacks, and these will increase in 2010.

What about cell phones? We believe 2010 will not be the year of threats to mobile phones either. The PC is a homogenous platform, with 90% of the world’s computers running Windows on Intel, which means that each bug created has a potential victim pool of 90% of the world’s computers. The mobile phone scenario is much more heterogeneous with a multitude of different vendors using different hardware and operating systems.

These are the predictions; let us see whether they have come true in a year’s time. I would like to finish with a message for soccer fans: The 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be exploited by cyber-criminals in numerous ways (fake tickets, junk mail, etc.). Don’t drop your guard.

Tweet This Post 

Uncategorized

According to Gartner, Cloud Computing is one of the 10 strategic technologies that will definitely take off in 2010. It is clear that cost optimization is the main driving factor behind clients opting for IT services hosted in the cloud. Although resources from the cloud do not completely eliminate the IT costs of companies, they do reduce them.

In the area of security, Gartner predicts that security services delivered as cloud-based services will triple in many segments by 2013. “Security applications delivered as cloud-based services will have a dramatic impact on the industry, as many cloud-based services will more than triple in many security segments. Enterprises that use cloud-based security services to reduce the cost of security controls and to address the new security challenges that cloud-based computing will bring are most likely to prosper”.

In the case of security, the evolution to a new cloud-based protection model is also linked to the exponential increase in malware that we have seen in recent years. Back in 2006, aware of how malware was evolving, at Panda we began to work on a new security model that has allowed us to become the first to offer cloud-based security services for home users (Panda Cloud Antivirus) and companies (Panda Cloud Protection). The future of security –which in our case is the present- is in the cloud.

The market is currently maturing, and so, there is still some confusion around the definitions of Cloud Computing, SaaS, Cloud Security, Security from the Cloud… However, there can be no doubt that the cloud is here to stay. The evolution of Internet technologies has made the migration of applications from local PCs or servers to other intangible hosts a reality.  This, in turn, opens the way for a new business model catering to markets that demand increasingly agile, fast and scalable solutions. Here you can see an interesting white paper about this issue prepared by the Panda team.

Tweet This Post 

Malware, security

According to recent reports, MEPs have proposed creating a court specialized in digital crime as yet another step in the fight against cyber-criminals. The European Parliament has voted in favor of creating a European Court of Cyber Affairs. This proposal will now have to pass through other EU filters before reaching the heads of state who will have the last word. This will probably be decided at the European Council Summit on December 10-11.

We still don’t know the final decision and whether the initiative will go ahead, but I believe it’s worth underlining the importance that the fight against cyber-crime seems to finally have been given in the heart of the EU. After several years in which Internet crime figures have risen without a corresponding rise in the resources made available to combat it, it is certainly positive to hear that the EU is making a move.

And it is particularly positive that it is being done at the level of the EU. The fight against cyber-crime from a national perspective is necessary, but limited in scope: it is difficult to fight against a type of crime and criminals who are not restricted by borders from a jurisdiction limited to a national territory. That’s why this effort must be undertaken by supra-national organizations. In this respect, the National Cyber-Security Advisory Council in Spain (founded by Panda) has backed the initiative put forward by the Spanish senate in favor of creating a European Plan for Cyber-Security. This motion favors the creation of a European Plan for Cyber-Security during the Spanish presidency of the European Union in 2010.

The motion put forward by MEPs to create the European Court of Cyber Affairs is driven by the “significant increase in recent years” of online crime. The dark side of the Net. Yet we must still not forget that the Internet is a medium that offers substantial opportunities to society -and is vital for its financial/economic fabric-, as well as bringing together cultures and organizations without geographic frontiers. To defend a solid Internet, free from threats, is a collective exercise in which institutions have a key role.

Tweet This Post 

Raising of awareness, security