And, just to add to our woes, another worrying development has been the greater use of popular Internet sites that are trusted by users to spread malware, with a warning by Kapersky that they estimate that more than half of all malicious programs will be placed on such sites in 2009.

But, that’s not all. Kapersky’s experts see Internet fraud such as phishing and the theft of bank card details becoming even more widespread in 2009 with the continued rapid growth in financial and banking services enabling clients to make e-payments, manage their bank accounts or exchange currency online.
 

Kapersky also has a number of other warnings to heed:
• “As more and more children and teenagers gain access to the Internet particular attention needs to be paid to the  protection of minors on the Internet, and the importance of parental control systems that enable dangerous or  undesired content to be filtered.
• “More and more malware will incorporate technologies that combat detection and deletion from computer systems. The  number of malicious programs specifically designed to bypass certain types of filters are expected to grow.
• “Virus writers will continue to exploit vulnerabilities in operating systems and popular applications, a factor that  will be especially relevant considering the release of Microsoft Windows 7 in 2009.
• “The growing popularity of alternatives to Windows, such as MacOS and Linux, will inevitably lead to an increase in  the number of malicious programs attacking those operating systems as well.”