Security consultants are warning of an upsurge in attacks over the next few years, as more and more people use the Net.On the hardware side, even more powerful PCs will emerge, but there are unlikely to be any great innovations Sony will enter the PC market for the first time. Other European telecoms giants may follow suit in their respective areas. Can Demon and the other Net start-ups survive?Net shopping will take off this year. Some analysts predict more than $500m worth of goods and services will be purchased via the Web, compared with an estimated $60m in 1995. This will boost efforts to develop digital cash and encourage more transactions on to the Net. Picture a scene in which a team of highly trained security men hears that a computer containing secret information has been stolen by an enemy. The third round of the FA Cup this weekend should provide a conclusive test of the well-touted belief that the Premiership is still accelerating away from the rest of the League.

Demon is joining in too, with plans to become a Europe-wide provider by the end of the year. But lurking in the shadows is BT, which is set to become a mass-market Net provider in the UK within the next six months. All the main online companies now provide full Net access, and are gaining customers at a prodigious rate. But as their special services become widely available on the Net, their long-term future looks far from certain.Europe will be one of the key battlegrounds over the next 12 months, with Europe Online and the America Online/Bertelsman combine challenging CompuServe’s current monopoly across the region.

Netscape is bundling Java with its latest Web browsers and Sun is giving it away free on the Net. With Microsoft due to ship in a rival, the Blackbird, in the next six months, this year will probably decide which format wins.The new year will see a punch-up between the no-frills Net access providers, such as NetCom in the US and the UK’s Demon Internet, and the online companies, such as CompuServe and America Online. This software system works on all computer platforms and combines the capabilities of CD-Rom with the real-time interactivity of the web. The race is on to produce an easy-to-use application that will make accessing and ordering Net services as simple and intuitive a task as changing channels on TV.Sun’s groundbreaking Java and HotJava could be crucial. The year will see yet more strategic partnerships along the lines of Microsoft’s recent deal with NBC and News Corporation’s link-up with MCI.Meanwhile, what matters is the battle between Microsoft and the big Net software developers, such as Netscape and Sun Microsystems. But that will not materialise this year.What will also not happen in 1996 is the completion of the high-capacity fibre-optic network necessary for the information superhighway to work It will be a long time before every household is linked up. Only then will calling up movies and music via your phoneline be feasible.