Companies pay a high price for cyber-crime

Apr 1, 2001 12:00 PM

Cyber-crimes are costing American companies millions of dollars annually. According to a survey conducted by the Computer Security Institute (CSI), companies are losing more than a million dollars per year due to Internet intrusions, trade secret theft and other cyber-crimes.

A survey, “Computer Crime and Security Survey,” is based on responses from 538 computer security practitioners in U.S. corporations, government agencies, financial institutions, medical institutions and universities. The findings show that the threat of cyber-crime is increasing and the increase has caused greater financial losses.

According to the survey, 85 percent of the survey respondents suffered computer security breaches within the last 12 months, and 64 percent of the respondents acknowledged financial losses due to the computer breaches.

Thirty-five percent of the respondents reported more than $377 million in financial losses. The most serious financial losses occurred through theft of proprietary information and financial fraud.

According to the survey, 70 percent of the respondents cited their Internet connection as the main point of attack for hackers and other cyber-criminals.

The rise in cyber-attacks is especially visible when compared the 2001 survey results with the 2000 results. According to the 2001 survey, 40 percent of respondents detected system penetration from the outside. In 2000, only 25 percent reported system penetration. In 2001, 38 percent of the respondents reported denial of service attacks. In 2000, only 27 percent detected denial of service attacks.

For more information about the survey, contact CSI director Patrice Rapalus at (415) 947-6370 or email at prapalus@cmp.com.

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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

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