There are 3.5 new threats created every second and as more and more businesses and home users take the inevitable journey to the Cloud, risks of data and financial loss are greater than ever, a Trend Micro report said.

Looking back, 2011 put a heavy price on data, and the security industry was challenged more than ever to protect this new currency.

Having spent much of the year battling data breaches that led to huge information and financial loss, the security industry was likely relieved to see 2011 come to a close. In its annual threat roundup report, Trend Micro wraps 2011 as “The Year of Data Breaches,” after witnessing large, well-known companies succumb to targeted data breach attacks that not only stained reputations, but caused them significant collateral damage.

Authored by Trend Micro threat researchers, this year’s report revisits past predictions, and summarizes notable threat incidents and security wins throughout 2011.

Highlights include:

* Trend Micro threat researchers tracked a staggering spike in the volume of mobile malware, especially those targeting the Android platform. RuFraud and DroidDreamLight -- just two of the most notorious Android malware variants -- took much of the spotlight, causing millions of users lost data and money.

* 2011 was a profitable year for social media spammers and scammers who leveraged the trending topics of social networking sites to improve upon their social engineering and hacking tactics, stealing the data of millions of social networkers worldwide. Consequently, regulators have started demanding that social networking sites implement policies and mechanisms to protect the privacy of their users.