Jan 4, 2008 | 2008 - The Year of Online Security?

I've been musing over the past few days about what this upcoming year might be. I've tossed out the New Years resolutions, the predictions about what is to come (hey, Barack is going to win, right?) and all the things the newspapers, the doomsayers, the warmongers, the peacemongers, and the politicians say about 2008.

That said, I think there are a few things to reminisce about 2007 and a few things to look forward in 2008. I would agree with the general idea that 2007 was a social networking year- if there was any year full of Web 2.0 giddiness and optimisim, it had to be it. The dot-com boom had long since gone, a new generation of web-savvy designers keen on getting their hands on the new phenomenon, and rushing to cash in on advertising that comes with it. To be fair, most of the social networks were already up before the year started (and Facebook had opened its doors to the public in September of '06), but its impact was widespread, and you then see the trend towards more selective, elitist networks.

The future holds, in my opinion, a greater focus on the need for online security. The social networking boom has its pitfalls in the form of easier work for identity thieves -- after all, all the information they need is pretty much summed up on a page -- and with a greater importance in online activities, one can't help but wonder not if but when one is subjected to the daunting feeling of being eavesdropped. Phishing is a thing of the past, what with newer and smarter browsers with automatic detection, and presumably with smarter and more aware online users. My hope is that devices such as the RSA SecurIDs, such as the one PayPal brought out in June of 2007, become a necessary component for online activity.

Instead, there will be other compromises, not unlike David Ariey's recent discovery of how Gmail (which has since fixed the vulnerability) allowed someone else to hijack his domain name and cheekily demand ransom for its return. Or about Facebook's proliferation of the Zango worm by a seemingly innocuous 'Secret Crush' notice, discovered just after New Years by FortiGuard.

There may come a time before too soon that people will realize that being online isn't such a fantastic idea after all. Maybe.

Also written on this day..

• 2012: Help me test out Haptico!
• 2005: Turned down by Cambridge
• 2004: Wild and controversial Wilde
• 2004: Predictions for the year ahead: 2004