Computer security firm McAfee Labs released its annual Threat Predictions report today, taking a look at what we'll see (and hope not to see) on 2013's deck of malware and viruses. Interestingly, McAfee's analysis predicts a decline in Anonymous' attacks, a rise in the frequency and sophistication of mobile malware, and a rise in large-scale attacks that aim to cause as much destruction as possible.

This time last year, McAfee's report for 2012 predicted that “Hacktivism and Anonymous will reboot and evolve.” While this year didn't see anything on the level of the hacks of Sony and HBGary from 2011, Anonymous did execute a number of high-profile attacks and threats. Now McAfee says that in 2013, hacktivisim will be conducted by more homogeneous, politically-motivated groups rather than Anonymous' pantheon of personalities and pet causes. Still, McAfee suggests that Anonymous may be able to stage a few high-visibility attacks in the coming months despite its predicted decline. The report reads:

Sympathizers of Anonymous are suffering. Too many uncoordinated and unclear operations have been detrimental to its reputation. Added to this, the disinformation, false claims, and pure hacking actions will lead to the movement’s being less politically visible than in the past. Because Anonymous’ level of technical sophistication has stagnated and its tactics are better understood by its potential victims, the group’s level of success will decline. However, we could easily imagine some short-lived spectacular actions due to convergence between hacktivists and antiglobalization supporters, or hacktivists and ecoterrorists.

The analysts go on to say that smaller groups with extremist views will redouble their efforts to hack bastions of democratic societies, improving their tactics “in sophistication and aggressiveness.”

In a similar vein, McAfee's report predicts “[l]arge-scale attacks like Stuxnet that attempt to destroy infrastructure, rather than make money.” While Ars reported on many a credit card scam this year, McAfee says those kind of hacks could pale in comparison to malware for malware's sake, choosing wanton destruction over profitable thievery.

But petty thievery will thrive in the mobile space, according to McAfee's report: trojans that buy apps from an app store without the user's approval and ransomware that bricks phones until the user pays a fee to the hacker are both pointed out in the report as types of hacks that have the potential to become much more common. Ransomware on the PC will also become more common next year, and McAfee notes that instances of this type of hack have “more than tripled during the past year.”