Cyber security continues to be a grey area and one could say that the threat perception has always been on upward swing.
The year 2010 saw the deadly Stuxnet worm among others shaking up the security system.
The year 2011 is not expected to be any different as cyber criminals will look to target major platforms such as Adroid, Apple software and those which have not yet been exposed to a security risk.
In addition to this 2011 will also see politically motivated attacks as groups are expected to repeat the WiKiLeaks paradigm.
McAfee has outlined the top threats for the year 2011 and the list comprises Google's Android, Apple's iPhone, foursquare, Google TV and the Mac OS X platform, which are all expected to become major targets for cybercriminals.
Geolocation services
Locative services such as foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places can easily search, track and plot the whereabouts of friends and strangers.
With just a few clicks, cybercriminals can see in real time who is tweeting, where they are located, what they are saying, what their interests are, and what operating systems and applications they are using.
This wealth of personal information on individuals enables cybercriminals to craft a targeted attack.
McAfee Labs predicts that cybercriminals will increasingly use these tactics across the most popular social networking sites in 2011.
Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have created the movement towards an "instant" form of communication, a shift that will completely alter the threat landscape in 2011.
Of the social media sites that will be most riddled with cybercriminal activity, McAfee Labs expects those with URL-shortening services will be at the forefront.
The use of abbreviated URLs on sites like Twitter makes it easy for cybercriminals to mask and direct users to malicious websites.
With more than 3,000 shortened URLs per minute being generated, McAfee Labs expects to see a growing number used for spam, scamming and other malicious purposes.
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