A shadowy web of malicious networks, or "malnets" will be the source of two thirds of online attacks in 2012, according to a report from the security firm Blue Coat.

Despite the continued industry focus on specific families and samples of malicious software, Blue Coat researchers say that identifying the common components of a handful of underlying infection infrastructures, which they are referring to as 'malnets,' is a more promising approach to stopping further infections.

The company's 2011 State of the Threat Landscape report identifies five principle malnets: Shnakule, Glomyn, Cavka, Naargo, and Cinbric. Blue Coat describes Malnets as distributed network infrastructures designed to sweep up victims while they browse trusted Web sites and route them through the malnets: forwarding them along from a legitimate (but compromised) Web site through relay servers and on to exploit and payload servers. Blue Coat believes that nearly to-thirds of all attacks in 2012 will originate from these and other known malnets. The company's researchers hope to exploit these networks by identifying common components within them and then using that information to mitigate threats before they become active.