As the new year looms, all kinds of firms start making predictions, mostly to boost their sales next year, I will be looking at a number of firm’s predictions for next year, a let’s see how smart they are this time next year. Here are the top security predictions for 2013 from Finland-based F-Secure Labs shared with Help Net Security.

1. The end of the Internet as we know it? – Secure Labs predicts that the ITU WCIT in Dubai could mean the end of the Internet (which I covered here and here). Sean Sullivan, Security Advisor at F-Secure Labs says that the World Conference on International Telecommunications could have a major impact on the Internet as we know it. “The Internet could break up into a series of smaller Internets,” Sullivan says. “Or it may start to be funded differently, with big content providers like Facebook and Google/YouTube having to pay taxes for the content they deliver.”

rb- WCIT has concluded with the U.S. and most of Europe refusing to sign the treaty due to language backed by Russia and China that could have large-ranging impacts on Internet freedom.

2. Leaks will reveal more government-sponsored espionage tools – “It’s clear from past leaks about Stuxnet, Flame, and Gauss that the cyber arms race is well underway,” says Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer at F-Secure Labs. While we may not always be aware of nation-states’ covert cyber operations, we can expect that governments are more and more involved in such activity.

3. Commoditization of mobile malware will increase – The Google (GOOG) Android operating system has solidified in a way that previous mobile operating systems haven’t, extending from phones to tablets to TVs to specialized versions of tablets. The more ubiquitous it becomes, “the easier to build malware on top of it and the more opportunities for criminals to innovate business-wise,” Sullivan says. Mobile malware will become more commoditized, with cyber-criminals building toolkits that can be purchased and used by other criminals without real hacking skills. In other words, malware as a service, for Android.

4. Another malware outbreak will hit the Mac world – First it was Mac Defender and then Flashback that attacked Apple.

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.