Summary: Malware is increasingly sophisticated, and social media are the common new venues for attacks. <p>These are the headlines from the latest Cisco Annual Security Report. Patrick Peterson, Cisco senior fellow, offers highlights of the report, discussing: </p><div id="blist">Top trends and threats;</div> <div id="blist">The risks to specific vertical industries and government agencies;</div> <div id="blist">The message to information security professionals looking to stay ahead of the threats.</div> <p>Peterson, Chief Security Researcher, is also a Cisco Fellow -- a position that is reserved for individuals whose technical contribution has made a material impact not only within Cisco, but also in the industry as a whole. As a security technology evangelist, Peterson leads research projects to understand cutting-edge criminal attacks and business models and developing the technologies to combat them. Peterson chairs the technical committee for the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) and the authentication committee for the Authentication and Online Trust Alliance. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences, including RSA, Gartner, Networkers and AusCe</p>
