If anything, the common prognosis among security vendors is that cyber-crooks are likely to get smarter and the deluge of unsolicited e-mail will continue to be the bane of Internet users in the year to come. ‘The greatest challenge we seem to be facing today is that there has been a major shift in cyber-attacks, and thus cyber-security. Viruses are no longer spread through mass attacks, but rather through attacks which are calculated and far more targeted, targeting individuals who can be exploited through vulnerabilities in their systems,’ said Eric Chong, country manager, consumer/SOHO segmentation of security software maker Trend Micro. Echoing his sentiment, Bill Robbins, Symantec’s senior vice-president of Asia-Pacific and Japan, said: ‘One of the major challenges we face is an evolving threat environment. ‘2006 was a year in which professional crime organisations blanketed the Internet seeking financial gain with criminal intent,’ added Benjamin Low, Secure Computing’s country manager for the Asean and India region.