MANILA, Philippines--The days of headline-grabbing computer viruses victimizing people by the thousands could be over as cybercriminals become wiser, Symantec said.

Mark Bregman, Symantec's chief technology officer, said the recent onslaught of computer viruses target a smaller group of users.

For 2008, Bregman said Symantec's virus labs detected about a million virus "signatures" from about half a million more the previous year.

These signatures are reported by users using Symantec’s antivirus software.

Although it sounds like a positive trend statistic-wise, this is not necessarily a good thing.

"Bad guys are getting smarter," said Bregman during a press briefing where he discussed key security trends for this year. "Malware now targets a smaller group [of users] to elude most antivirus software."

The irony is that this development indicates antivirus tools are indeed becoming more effective.

Antivirus firms like Symantec are now sharing monitored signatures, which increases the chances of detecting computer viruses right away.

"By targeting a smaller group of users, these types of viruses may be difficult to detect," Bregman said. “That's why, unlike in the past, you don't see many headlines about flashy viruses."

Worse, this trend poses a greater danger to every Internet user. Whereas in the past virus-makers are out to make noise -- and infamy -- by victimizing more people, these days it is becoming a serious "business."

"There are now more mature models for criminals. Nowadays, you don't necessarily need to be a programmer. You can outsource the entire thing for a fee," Bregman said.

From July to August 2008 alone, Symantec reported it has monitored cybercrime transactions worth more than $275 million. This denotes increasing investments from cybercriminals in such activities, Bregman said.