Cybercriminals are cashing in on vulnerabilities of softwares and social media to attack users in India, according to security software maker Trend Micro.

According to data collected by TrendLabs from April to June, cybercriminals have taken advantage of software vulnerabilities, current events like FIFA World Cup and the popularity of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to proliferate their malicious deeds.

While Internet remains the favourite means to spread malware and viruses, removable/physical devices and e-mail followed close as means to attacking systems.

"Spammed messages promising a prize or informing users that they won a certain lottery were seen and to claim this, personal information was sought. Such means were employed in Twitter-related attacks that lead to the download of malware," Amit Nath, Country Manager, India and SAARC, Trend Micro said.

Cybercriminals also leveraged on software vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader, Skype, Microsoft Windows Help Center and Adobe Flash Player to lead users to a series of malware infection, it added.

"Social media-related threats are seen as an emerging trend. At present, KOOBFACE is the largest Web 2.0 botnet that employed various social networking sites for its social engineering ploy," the report said.

A malware, particularly targeting, Mac users is found bundled with free application and screensavers.

Users who download and install the malicious software are directed to specific URL, where they get to download malicious programs. The infected systems may lose sensitive information as this malware is capable of spying on the victim's networks.