HELSINKI (Reuters) – Targeted cyber attacks will pose a growing threat to companies around the world this year after the Stuxnet worm hit Iran's nuclear program in 2010, security software maker Symantec Corp said on Tuesday.

"Last year was the year of high-profile targeted attacks. We will see so many more," said Sian John, security strategist at Symantec.

So-called targeted attacks succeed as most consumers avoid clicking on suspicious links in spam emails, but open files that seem to arrive from legitimate senders.

"They are more challenging, but the return is higher," John said.

In total, the number of measured Web-based attacks rose 93 percent in 2010 from a year ago, boosted by proliferation of shortened Internet addresses, Symantec said in its annual threat review.

"Last year, attackers posted millions of these shortened links on social networking sites to trick victims into both phishing and malware attacks, dramatically increasing the rate of successful infection," Symantec said.

Social networking sites are increasingly important platform for attackers as their popularity among consumers is rising fast.

The software company said attacks on leading mobile platforms were also set to increase after a 42 percent rise in mobile vulnerabilities last year.

"The major mobile platforms are finally becoming ubiquitous enough to garner the attention of attackers," Symantec said. "Attackers are really following the consumers here."

(Editing by Andre Grenon)

Windows Phone 7 Jailbreak Updates Your Phone

A developer behind the short-lived ChevronWP7 jailbreak for Windows Phone 7 has released a hack that lets you bypass Microsoft and carriers to download WP7 updates on your own.

"I don't care which carrier you are on, which phone you have, it'll just update your phone accordingly," wrote Chris Walsh in a blog post.

The tool is meant to address recent, controversial delays to releasing WP7 updates. The glitches prompted Microsoft to halt a minor update on Samsung smartphones.

Walsh used Microsoft's own support tool to create a program that applies all WP7 updates at once. This includes "NoDo," which brings features like cut and paste to WP7 phones. The official updates are supposed to roll out on Tuesday, starting with the HTC HD7. Typically, Microsoft works with carriers to send over-the-air software updates.

"We really have to commend Microsoft here for being able to split up the OS updates into differential packs, which saves users downloading 200+ MB updates, unlike the IFruit updates," he added, referring to Apple.

As Walsh's instructions note, users need to download Microsoft's Windows Phone Support Tool before executing the ChevronWP7 Updater program. Walsh added a disclaimer saying downloading the hack will void your phone's warranty.

"There is NO revert process, again, flash at your own risk," he wrote.

Last November, Walsh, along with Rafael Rivera and Long Zheng, created a homebrew jailbreak called ChevronWP7 that unlocked the operating system. By January Microsoft had shut it down.