New cyber threats emerging in 2013

As electronic payments and business opportunities evolve, so do the cybercriminals that threaten them.

Mobile payments in particular have exploded in use, making smartphones and tablets logical targets for identity thieves. To prevent falling victim to any one of the new viruses and approaches cybercriminals are harnessing, it's wise for individuals to pay attention to emerging threats.

For example, one type of malware, which targets Google's Android operating system, works by intercepting incoming text messages and then forwarding them to other numbers or servers, The Wall Street Journal reports. This sort of attack would likely target banking services that include mobile transaction authentication numbers.

Other cyberattacks are targeting medical identity theft.

"Our push to digitize medical records and associated data, including identity, insurance and financial information, has spawned system design flaws, sloppy data handling and everything in between," Adam Levin, chairman of Identity Theft 911, told the newspaper.

Individuals and businesses would do best to investigate ways to protect their mobile devices from malware by looking into firewalls, password protections and anti-virus software.