Firms were warned today to protect their Macs from web-borne threats, as 2008 could see a concerted effort by hackers to broaden their attacks.

"Our prediction is that Mac malware will become a big problem," said Sophos' Graham Cluley. "Now is the key time for businesses running Macs to stop this from becoming a problem because in six to twelve months – once the criminals see there is money to be made here – it may be too late."

Cluley advised firms to secure their Macs as they would their PCs, with anti-malware software and web filtering technology to scan sites in real-time in order to prevent users visiting compromised web sites which could download malware.

Sophos also warned that the prevalence of wi-fi enabled consumer devices among enterprise users could cause IT managers more security headaches during the coming year, as hackers seek to mine corporate data from back-end systems.

"I wouldn't be surprised to see more attacks against these devices," Cluley explained. "It's about controlling which devices you allow to connect to the network via NAC solutions, and setting policies as to what are acceptable devicesto take on the road."