INTERNATIONAL. 2010 will be the year of ongoing change. Further adoption of cloud, social media and virtualization technologies will continue to blur the network parameter, while new cybercriminal methods such as ransomware and crime as a service will lure in unsuspecting users and threaten the enterprise at large.

Security postures must move from a container-centric approach that is tied to a physical locale to a data and information-centric security design.

To do this, organizations – large and small – should consider a layered, centralized security solution that provides multiple security touch points within the network, rather than around it, in order to protect their information from outside in and inside out.

With this in mind, Fortinet predicts the following top 10 security trends for 2010:

1.Security, Virtually Speaking: Preventing infections from cross pollinating between virtual machines will be key in securing virtual movements of servers.

2. Information, Protect Thyself!: Information-centric security, rather than container-centric security, will be necessary in the next decade as access to data will continue to evolve outside the traditional network.

3. Get Your Head, Not Your Security, Out of the Cloud: Adopting cloud-based services opens organizations up to many risks and vulnerabilities as information travels to and from protected networks via a public pipe, creating many more opportunities for data infection or theft.

4. Don’t Throw the Apps Out with the Bath Water: Second-layer security will be adopted to help enterprises have better application control beyond just allow or not allow.

5. Security and Network Services Aren’t Strange Bedfellows: A natural evolution with the trend in consolidating network devices is to integrate more network functionality into security devices.

6. CaaS vs. SaaS: Cybercriminals will take a page from the new security-as-a-service business model to implement their own crime-as-a-service approach, a criminal “environment for hire,” so to speak.

7. Scareware and Affiliates Find New Ground: With consumers becoming wise to scareware, cybercriminals are expected to up the stakes in 2010 by holding consumers’ digital assets hostage for ransom.

8. Money Mules Multiply: Unwitting consumers may find themselves accessories to a crime as cybercriminals find new “mules” to launder their ill-gotten gains.

9. Multiple Platforms in the Crosshairs: With a growing number of users on new platforms, cybercriminals will target their attacks beyond Microsoft Windows.

10. Botnets Hide Through Legit Means: Botnets will no longer just obfuscate their binary codes to escape detection. Instead, they will piggyback on legitimate communications vehicles to propagate and cloak activities.

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