Cyberthreats have become increasingly sophisticated since the early 1980s, when the first known case of a computer virus was reported. As recently as a few years ago, the development of malware (including viruses, worms, and Trojans) presented a simple intellectual challenge to information technology (IT) experts to demonstrate the technical skills. Today, cybercrime has become an organized syndicate reaping financial rewards and using diverse tools to threaten different platforms in various countries. No country is safe. Spam has evolved to become a vehicle disseminating other dangerous malware to perpetrate online financial fraud, identity or trade-secret theft, among other risks. Taking into account newer threats to critical infrastructure in the financial, health, energy, transportation, telecommunication, defence and other sectors, the impact of cyberthreats is becoming ever greater. Further, the risks are evolving in line with the technologies. For example, one emerging menace is the shift in strategy by hackers from a central command-and-control model for controlling botnets to a peer-to-peer model with a distributed command structure, capable of spreading to compromised computers located in different countries. This practice makes it very difficult to pinpoint any single geographical location as the origin of cyberattacks using botnets, and consequently makes it more difficult to identify them and shut them down. This shift in strategy is not just aimed at delivering courier spam and malware, but can also be used to disseminate inappropriate content, such as child pornography, without the knowledge of the hijacked computer owners that they are hosting and disseminating such content.
 

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