My predictions for 2005: wireless iPods, more phishing, and many more Firefox users
Over at The Independent I’ve put my neck on the block and put up my predictions for 2005 to follow on from my previous ones (2004 is on this site, and you never know, this might impel me to put up the ones for 2003…)
I’ll put up the list for 2005 on this site, oh, presently. Just to point out that while the headline-writers appear to be forecasting an OSX virus, I’m not.
But I am forecasting a wireless iPod (a flash-based one was too easy a slam-dunk, though of course now I’m wondering about a headless iMac), no viruses for OSX, that Apple’s iPod revenues will exceed those from computers, that phishing will be used for industrial espionage as well as boring old bank fraud, that Internet Explorer’s market share will fall to 75%, that search will become preeminent and there will be “malware” that pretends to be Google’s or MSN’s search program downloads, and plenty more. Plus, of course, advice on how to avoid being caught out by all this.
- These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
- Firefox encroaches on IE.. slowly, slowly... (28 April 2005; score: 70.8%)
- My predictions for 2004: See how I'm doing (12 October 2004; score: 60.43%)
- First thought on eBay buys Skype (12 September 2005; score: 56.22%)
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December 31st, 2004 at 10:56 am
I would, however, forecast script kiddie assaults on OS X. To the degree that it’s Unix, these are inevitable. If you have an ssh port open on broadband, there is a brute force attack every couple of days at the moment. 168 logins have been tried against me so far, and I have solemnly entered the entire APNIC registy into hosts.deny. Now all I want is to be able to identify, and exclude anyone trying to connect from Romania.
Of course, I don’t know what ports bog standard OS X has open when you install it.
December 31st, 2004 at 12:36 pm
Erm… can’t remember if the firewall is switched on by default or not.
December 31st, 2004 at 8:54 pm
Charles Arthur’s new predictions (updated 31st Dec)
Charles Arthur has just published a new article outlining his predictions for the tech scene in 2005. One thing I noticed was the prediction that “Comment spam” on blogs will threaten to strangle discussion there, as it has on the…
January 1st, 2005 at 9:29 pm
There are already script kiddie attempts, and there’s at least one root kit for OSX. But what I said was that “there will be more security problems.. but by the end of 2005 no bona fide virus or worm for OSX.” We’ll see.
As for ports, I think I’m right in saying that none of the inbound ports is open by default in a stock OSX installation. The firewall though is turned off by default.
January 2nd, 2005 at 10:11 am
If none of the inbound ports are open, then apple is probably fine: anyone who knows enough to turn on a port should know enough to protect it.