As 2010 drew to a close, the major computer security vendors put out predictions for this year's biggest threats. PC Magazine's Larry Seltzer pulled together a round-up of the vendors' forecasts and offered his own take on their predictions.

Several predictions follow logically on threats and vulnerabilities that have long been present. M86 Security Lab's prediction that there will be more mobile malware is far from prescient given the continued growth in smartphone and tablet computer use. As Seltzer points out, this trend has been around for some time and there's no reason to expect it to wane.

Symantec warns that spam will become increasingly global as more people in developing countries gain Internet access. The security vendor also predicts that cybercrooks may take over entire URL shortening services and exploit router vulnerabilities.

Neil Daswani of Dasient warns that a new form of malware that uses keystroke-logged credentials will essentially be able to transfer account balances. Also, he expects IM threats to become more advanced, and audio-logging and webcam-logging may become as pervasive and keystroke-logging.

For more:
- see Larry Selter's article at PC Magazine

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