"The days of mass outbreaks are nearing an end," said Gulloto. "These are not the threats that are making money."

He added the attacks that have genuine criminal intent use fewer machines, use specific custom-written trojans, malicious code and malware to gain access to specific users and their data.

Tip of the spear

Another targeted threat known as "spear phishing" is also on the rise. Different from the mass-mailing phishing phenomenon, spear phishing emails target specific individuals and carry information or subject lines that pertain to work or personal interests of that individual.

Often the emails come from spoofs of senders familiar to the target recipient. According to MessageLabs' data, recorded intercepts of spear phishing has risen from a mere 3386 in April to 612,408 in June this year.