It was once believed that only PCs and laptops were among the devices that were likely to be affected by an online threat originating from Spyware, Malware or any other suspicious attack. But now, it seems, the mobile world could be the next victim of these attacks, according to some new findings.

Fortinet, a provider of network security appliances and Unified Threat Management or ‘UTM’ solutions, has recently released the FortiGuard Labs’ 2012 Threat Predictions, warning enterprises about eight biggest threats they must remain aware of during the next year. FortiGuard Labs has offered these threat statistics and trends on the basis of the data it collected through the FortiGate network security appliances and intelligence systems being deployed worldwide.

One of the most important security predictions for the year 2012 by the company is that ‘ransomwares’ will take mobile devices hostage. In essence, these programs are infectious pieces of code that hold a device ‘hostage’ until the owner pays an amount as ‘ransom’ to its originator. While ‘ransomwares’ have been prevailing in the PC world for quite some time, FortiGuard Labs has recently observed a similar kind of infectious malware for mobile devices as well.

The organization has also predicted that in the next year Android Worms, malicious software codes that are capable of rapidly propagating from one device to another will be introduced. Although the Android operating system has been known to offer enhanced safety from malware attacks, the FortiGuard Labs prediction suggests that things are going to change in the year 2012, as Android malware developers will be propagating these infectious codes through poisoned SMS messages containing a link that will point to a worm, or through infected links on social networks.

FortiGuard Labs further predicts that various new loopholes within the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition or ‘SCADA’ systems of enterprises will be discovered, which will result in potentially devastating consequences for organizations worldwide.

In related company news, TechZone360 recently reported that Fortinet’s FortiGate multi-threat network security appliances have been selected by Telekomunikacja Polska, a Poland-based telecommunications provider, to be included within its ‘Managed UTM’ solution. Telekomunikacja’s latest offering has been designed to enhance the security of internal networks within SMBs and large-sized enterprises against external risks.