The Next Generation of Security Threats

ACM Technews references a CNET article on how hackers are now focusing on areas other than operating systems.

Robert Hensing, Microsoft security engineer, posed a question to hundreds of his colleagues, fellow developers, and invited hackers about whether a person's PC could become infected with a rootkit by merely opening a PowerPoint file.

Some developers raised their hands. In an adjacent room, the entire table of hackers that had been invited to speak at the conference raised their hands.

"That's the one thing I want you to take away from this," Hensing told the developers. "Applications are dangerous."

For more information and how applications have supplanted operating systems as targets, see the complete article in cnet NEWS.com.