The number of cyber-crimes and hacker attacks and the cost attributed to such intrusions has declined for the fourth consecutive year, according to the latest report from the Computer Security Institute (CSI).
CSI attributed the fall-off to increased attention to security by businesses and government agencies.
In its ninth annual Computer Crime and Security Survey, the institute noted that the downward trend, which started in 2001, resulted in the lowest percentage since 1999 of those polled who reported unauthorized use of their computer systems.
In the last 12 months, approximately 53 percent of the nearly 500 IT and security managers surveyed said that their organizations had experienced an attack.
The costs of security breaches also declined year to year, from $202 million in 2003 to an estimated $141 million in 2004.
For the first time, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks took the number one spot as the most expensive computer crime, accounting for about 18 percent of the total cost of security invasions. The DoS attack figures come as no surprise, since several major security outbreaks over the last 12 months have involved worms that targeted specific firms, such as the SCO Group and Microsoft, with such assaults.
CSI attributed the fall-off to increased attention to security by businesses and government agencies.
In its ninth annual Computer Crime and Security Survey, the institute noted that the downward trend, which started in 2001, resulted in the lowest percentage since 1999 of those polled who reported unauthorized use of their computer systems.
In the last 12 months, approximately 53 percent of the nearly 500 IT and security managers surveyed said that their organizations had experienced an attack.
The costs of security breaches also declined year to year, from $202 million in 2003 to an estimated $141 million in 2004.
For the first time, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks took the number one spot as the most expensive computer crime, accounting for about 18 percent of the total cost of security invasions. The DoS attack figures come as no surprise, since several major security outbreaks over the last 12 months have involved worms that targeted specific firms, such as the SCO Group and Microsoft, with such assaults.
advertisement
This month in Access Control
- Opening Up About Door Closers
- An Enterprise Approach
- The Framework For Open Systems
- On A Higher Plane
- More from April's issue
advertisement
