Symantec predicts we’ll start taking our privacy more seriously in 2014
About this time of year Symantec starts gazing into the company crystal ball and making predictions on what the future holds -- security wise -- for us all. The 2014 list is very short, just four items, but it’s an interesting selection nonetheless.
Given that 2013 put our lack of privacy front and center with stories of PRISM, NSA spying and numerous hacks, it’s no surprise that for the first prediction, Symantec thinks that people will finally begin taking active steps to keep their information private in 2014.
"You can expect to see privacy protection as a feature in new and existing products, and then, beyond 2014, we’ll be arguing on whether or not these features actually provide any privacy protection,” Symantec’s Kevin Haley says. He also expects online anonymity tool Tor, to become more popular, and a surge in aliases and fake names to appear on social networking sites as users -- and teens in particular -- take action to protect their privacy.
Symantec believes new social networks will arrive to tempt users away from old ones which have become rich pickings for cyber criminals, and data collectors, but the new choices won’t prove to be any safer, as the scammers and identity thieves will quickly follow.
For its third prediction, Symantec sees the "Internet of Things" becoming the "Internet of Vulnerabilities", with attacks against smart TVs, security cameras, medical equipment and so on becoming more commonplace.
Finally, the security firm believes mobile apps will be used to perpetrate all sorts of hoaxes, cons and scams in 2014. Kevin Haley sites an example of an app from this year which promised users additional likes for their Instagram posts, and all they had to do in return was hand over their login and password details to some guy in Russia. Which 100,000 people duly did.
To go with the security predictions, Symantec has created a handy infographic which you can see below.
Photo credit: Poznyakov/Shutterstock
