While past attacks were designed to destroy data or simply to cause nuisance, today's attacks are increasingly leaning towards the motive of silently gaining a profit without doing noticeable damage that would alert a user to its presence.

According to the report, malicious code threats that could reveal information rose from 74% to 80% from July to December last year.

'Cybercrime represents today's greatest threat to consumers' digital lifestyle and to online businesses in general,' said Al Ramon Dela Cruz, country sales manager of Symantec Philippines.