A dramatic increase in targeted attacks on state institutions and large companies may loom in 2012, a computer security firm said.
Kaspersky Lab also warned a wider range of organizations around the world may have to brace for the expected cyber onslaught.
"(This year), companies in the natural resource extraction, energy, transport, food and pharmaceutical industries will be affected, as well as Internet services and information security companies,” said Kaspersky Lab's Alexander Gostev, author of the report "Cyberthreat Forecast for 2012."
For now, he noted most attacks had targeted companies and state organizations involved in arms manufacturing, financial operations, or hi-tech and scientific research activities.
Gostev said the attacks will likely spread beyond Western Europe and the US and affecting Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Less email, more browser attacks
Kaspersky Lab experts said attackers may change their methods in response to the growing competition among IT security companies that investigate and protect against targeted attacks.
Also driving the search for new methods is increased public attention to security lapses, they added.
"The conventional method of attacks that involve email attachments with vulnerability exploits will gradually become less effective, while browser attacks will gain in popularity," they said.
Hacktivist attacks, state support
The Kaspersky Lab forecast also said hacktivist attacks on state organizations and businesses will continue in 2012, with a predominantly political agenda.
Gostev said this will be an important trend when compared to similar attacks in 2011.
But hacktivism could well be used as a diversionary tactic to conceal other types of attacks, Kaspersky Lab said.
It said high-tech malicious programs such as Stuxnet and Duqu created with state support will remain unique phenomena.
"Their emergence will be dictated by international tensions between specific countries," it said.
Gostev said the cyber conflicts in 2012 will revolve around traditional confrontations: the US and Israel versus Iran, and the US and Western Europe versus China.
More basic weapons designed to destroy data at a given time, such as kill switches and logic bombs will become more popular as they are easier to manufacture.
"The creation of these programs can be outsourced to private contractors used by the military or other government agencies. In many cases the contractor may not be aware of the customer’s aims," Kaspersky Labs said.
Mobile threats, espionage
Kaspersky Lab said devices running Google's Android OS may remain the target of choice for the mobile malware market as well as an increase in the numbers of attacks that exploit vulnerabilities.
It also forecast the emergence of the first mobile drive-by attacks and mobile botnets.
"Mobile espionage will become widespread and will most probably include data theft from mobile phones and the tracking of people using their telephones and geolocation services," it said.