While banks take a measured approach at best in implementing regulatory guidelines aimed at curbing online corporate account fraud, cyber criminals are speeding ahead with their nefarious efforts.

Online threats have morphed from pesky viruses and Web sites designed to elicit passwords and other private information to "man-in-the-browser" malware that hijacks a company's browser to carry out transactions and drain funds from bank accounts.

Trusteer, whose software protects browsers and operating systems from such malware, predicts companies will face a surge in threats to their bank accounts in 2012. One type of malware, named Ramnit, has enabled a variety of illicit nonfinancial software to infiltrate and run on host computers, unbeknownst to the computers' users. Last summer, according to Amit Klein, chief technology officer at Trusteer, Ramnit was retrofitted to conduct financial fraud as well.