thechromesource – Google Chrome and Chrome OS News and Forum

McAfee Reports Chrome OS as 2010 Security Threat

Posted on 30. Dec, 2009 by Daniel Cawrey in News

In a ten page report that was released Tuesday, McAfee outlined its predictions for computer security trends in 2010. Along with Twitter as well as Adobe’s Flash and Reader programs, McAfee is reporting that Chrome OS is going to be one of the top computer security issues that will have vulnerabilities in 2010.

In their 2010 Threat Predictions Report McAfee states, “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. ”

Google Wave is also singled out in the report, warning that the eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)  is vulnerable to attacks.

We’ve previously written about HTML-5, and it’s going to be a pretty impressive advancement in terms of web technology and how the browser will be able to interpret code. However, it’s hard to say whether Chrome OS alone will be the single weak point in the emergence of HTML 5. Since there has been a lot of news about Chromium as of late, identifying it as a threat now keeps developers, network administrators and security professionals on their toes about potential attacks that could occur.

This is new territory for Google, as in the near future their hardware/software products are now going to be integrated into the computer infrastructure that we users interact every day with, and that is an appealing target for hackers.

The report does offer a positive outlook  on the ability of law enforcement to stop cybercrime.

Tags: Adobe, Chrome OS, Google, Google Wave, HTML 5, McAfee, privacy, security, Twitter