In an e-mail advisory, the US-based firm said attackers are becoming less innovative with threats.

However they are becoming more innovative in their development of lucrative business models, Fortinet said.

Now, more than ever, is it likely that these attackers, who were once satisfied with a paltry $ 100 here and $ 1,000 there, are gunning for the "big boys," according to Richard Stiennon, network security industry expert and Fortinet chief marketing officer.

And, in 2007, it is likely that they will pull out the stops in trying to get it.

Stiennon also predicted that 2007 could very well be the year that attackers get smart about attacking enterprise data centers in a fashion that could double their cyber crime revenue.

Stiennon reckons that losses due to cyber attacks and could reach between $ 4 billion and $ 8 billion.

Cyber extortion attempts, however, will no longer be limited to financial institutions or enterprises, and even local governments, schools and manufacturers could find themselves trying to protect against normally business-focused attacks, the executive said.

The executive further predicted that cyber criminals are likely to double their illegal take from cyber extortions this year. He said cyber criminals are also likely to focus on enterprise data stores, urging enterprises to take precautions from such attacks.

"Phishing," or the illegal act of accessing personal data such as bank account and credit card information over the Internet, will also continue, Stiennon said.

Phishing attacks gain notoriety last year, with numerous documented cases resulting to millions of dollars in losses. The bad news, Stiennon warns, is that identity theft will still continue this year.

Interestingly, Stiennon also predicted that there will be more attacks against wireless networks, although he did not give other details on the possible nature of these attacks.

Lastly, the executive said the popularity of social networking websites such as MySpace and YouTube may result to more spamming abuses.