Researchers: Criminals could launch 'social reality' attack

Malware could soon become sophisticated enough to launch social engineering attacks based on analysis of a victim's behavioural patterns and social interactions, researchers have suggested. 

According to the MIT and Israel-based authors of Stealing Reality, such malware would represent a major step change from today's crude threats, capable of inflicting serious damage to targeted individuals.

Some malware might exist solely to build databases of behavioural data on individuals culled over a long period of time, which would then be used as the fuel for highly-targeted social engineering attacks able to penetrate even the best-defended organisations or social groups.

After analysis using mathematical models of optimum spread, the researchers dub this the 'social reality' attack, the dark twin of today's consensual social networks where complex data would be collected and exploited for a variety of criminal rather than social or legal ends.


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