Earlier this week, Sophos released the latest edition of its Security Threat Report, summing up the biggest threats seen during 2012, along with five trends that are likely to factor into IT security in the coming year.

Regarding the malware rides we experienced in 2012 and the thrills we can expect in 2013, there will be cross-over, for sure: Blackhole was huge in 2012, and it’s not going away, barring the law nailing the person/s running it, the report notes.

Between October 2011 and March 2012, out of all threats detected by SophosLabs, nearly 30% either came from Blackhole directly or were redirects to Blackhole kits from compromised legitimate sites, as Naked Security’s coverage of Blackhole exploits attests.

This adroit exploit kit rapidly mutates to thwart security efforts against it, while its software-as-a-service business model is, as the report notes, something for business school grads to drool over.

The professionalization of crimeware such as Blackhole marks a major shift as we head into the new year.

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