As the global economy slows down and the crisis starts impacting people on the street, hi-tech criminals are expected to pounce and take advantage of the situation.

According to security experts, criminals are motivated by social upheaval and the more unemployment you have in a society, the more crime you'll have.

"If you look, in general, where the attacks are coming from you can find social reasons behind them," says Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure. "It's not a technical problem, it's social."

As more and more skilled tech people end up on the street, at least some of them are bound to use their knowledge for criminal enterprises. There's also a chance disgruntled workers will try to strike back at their former employers.

Online fraud has been on the rise for the past years and 2009 is not expected to be an exception. Apart from plain fraud, online gambling, which is tantamount to legalized fraud, is also expected to rise in these turbulent times.

More here.