Social networking sites will be the main focus for cybercrime in 2010, according to Security experts McAfee Labs.

Leading the way is Facebook with more than 350 million users and malware authors are expected to develop their attacks to take full advantage of the social networking buzz that will continue this year.

By hijacking existing members’ accounts on Facebook and Twitter, criminals will seek to abuse the relationship of trust between sites and their users and encourage unsuspecting friends to click on links that they might otherwise ignore.

Following Apple’s App Store reaching the 100,000 mark, rogue applications, which capture sensitive credentials and data, are also expected to abuse the facility to post on trusted mainstream Web sites.

Early indications of the potential threat have arrived in the form of an alleged attack on the Huffington Post Twitter account, where offensive messages suggested the account had been hacked. Although juvenile posts rather than spam or malicious links were the only result before the account was suspended the attack did alert avid Tweeters to the increased risk.

While HTML5 and Adobe software, in particular Acrobat Reader and Flash, are also marked as potential targets, McAfee does report that cyber security is also expected to develop in 2010 to combat the increased threat.

The report mentions dangers about these social media sites and says:

• In 2009 we saw increased attacks on websites, exploit cocktails thrown at unsuspecting users, infrastructure failure via natural and unnatural causes, and ‘friendly fire’ become a larger problem than ever
• With Facebook reaching more than 350 million users, 2010 will take these trends to new heights.

McAfee expects increase in the effectiveness of law enforcement to fight back against cybercrime in 2010.

Here is the summary of the possible threats mentioned in the report:

• Social networking sites such as Facebook will face more sophisticated threats as the number of users grows
• The explosion of applications on Facebook and other services will be an ideal vector for cybercriminals, who will take advantage of friends trusting friends to click links they might otherwise treat cautiously
• HTML 5 will blur the line between desktop and online applications. This, along with the release of Google Chrome OS, will create another opportunity for malware writers to prey on users
• Email attachments have delivered malware for years, yet the increasing number of attacks targeted at corporations, journalists, and individual users often fool them into downloading Trojans and other malware
• Cybercriminals have long picked on Microsoft products due to their popularity. In 2010, expect Adobe software, especially Acrobat Reader and Flash, to take the top spot
• Banking Trojans will become cleverer, sometimes interrupting a legitimate transaction to make an unauthorized withdrawal
• Botnets are the leading infrastructure for cybercriminals, used for actions from spamming to identity theft. Recent successes in shutting down botnets will force their controllers to switch to alternate, less vulnerable methods of command, including peer-to-peer setups
• In spite of the worldwide scope of botnets, expect even more successes in the fight against all forms of cybercrime in 2010.

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