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Hacking has become an increasingly professional operation, as cyber crime becomes ever more lucrative, a leading security expert has said.

Joe Telafici, vice president of operations for McAfee’s Avert Labs, told the BBC that there had been a clear trend in the last year towards malware designed to make money.

Instead of the debilitating effect of a shutdown or the irritant-style spam which might slow down a PC, Mr Telafici says attacks have become more focussed on theft.

“2007 was a fairly interesting year,” he commented, adding that an “eco-system” surrounding the solicitation of money from unsuspecting users had sprung up.

As well as criminals using the tools to try to scam money from users, security threats are being commercialised and offered on the open market, with those without the expertise to perform hacks now able to operate applications which do it for them.

The advent of new web-based applications such as social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, which include a welter of personal data and opportunities for illicit access, has further muddied the waters for security analysts.

The sites, which soared in popularity in 2007, are expected to be a target for hackers this year.

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Social networking sites are likely to become an increasingly attractive target for fraudsters, experts have warned.

The turn of the new year is expected to see the popularity of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook continue.

However, IT security analysts say the proliferation of personal details and the availability of information on people’s date of birth, interests and phone numbers could be a way in for unscrupulous hackers.

ScanSafe has forecast that 2008 will see Web 2.0 threats top the list of the biggest security worries.

“The explosion in popularity of Web 2.0 applications has made Web 2.0 sites an increasingly rich target for cyber criminals,” the firm declared in its evaluation of the coming year.

Mary Landesman, senior security researcher at the firm, told the BBC the nature of the medium meant it could be targeted.

“The technologies that play there and the third party add-ons make it an environment that is susceptible to compromise,” she explained.

Cybercrime is said to be an industry worth more than $100 billion a year.

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It has been claimed that companies are being hindered by a lack of understanding regarding Web 2.0 technology.

Two new surveys have suggested that businesses do not have a sufficient understanding of how to work with and benefit from Web 2.0 applications and as a result access is being blocked, causing companies to miss out on the potential benefits of the technology.

According to research from IT services firm, Parity, almost half of senior managers are not aware of the benefits that are to be gained from promoting Web 2.0 in the workplace, while a third of IT managers polled admitted that they had a lack of understanding as to how best to utilise the technology.

Furthermore, research from security firm Clearswift revealed that 65 per cent of HR decision-makers polled were denying employees access to social networking sites in the office, rather than working on ways that the technology could be used to boost their business.

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