Symantec warns that the public sector faces growing security threats

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Spam too remains on its upward path, with volumes up 50 per cent, and pump and dump scams making up 20 per cent - again with the motivation of making money via a scam rather than the small odds that the recipient will actually buy advertised goods.

The upside of this is that there is a paper trail to follow. "Yes, they still have to use brokering accounts to get the money in and out," said Whitehouse. "Which makes them relatively easy to identify."

Symantec noted an average of 904 unique phishing mails a day over the period. In Europe, Germany hosted the most phishing sites in Europe with 32 per cent. The UK was second with 9 per cent. But strangely Russia was right down in fifth place.

Whitehouse identified a new target, which he referred to as 'secondary economies'. By this he means the online worlds of MMORPGs such as Blizzard's World of Warcraft and Linden Lab's Second Life, where virtual objects have a real world value.

Attacks are used to "asset strip user accounts," said Whitehouse. "They are recognised as valuable assets to the right audience."

Doing so allows attackers to 'target a new demographic' in younger people who might not have bank accounts, but might have a valuable collection of game items.

For the future, Symantec highlighted Vista and third-party applications, virtualisation and spam and phishing attacks targetting mobile devices as areas of concern.

"The techniques employed are evolving at a very fast pace," warned Whitehouse.

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