Cyber-Attacks Top Worry for Business Owners

According to the State of Security Report for 2011 by Symantec studying businesses, all types of corporate houses consider cyber-attacks as one increasing problem. ComputerWeekly.com reported this on August 31, 2011.

Of all security concerns in 2011, Symantec's study highlighted the 3 most disturbing ones. These are security of PC-networks and their databases, IT incidences due to activities of well-intentioned insiders, and deliberate IT-related attacks generated from within the organizations. Overall, 3,000 respondents or more from 36 nations reported online assaults as their greatest worry.

Respondents in the survey as well said that they regarded "industrial espionage," "hackers" and "targeted assaults" as considerable security threats affecting the companies they were employed in though they also increasingly mentioned "well-intentioned insiders" whose inadvertent activities resulted in security problems.

That is so since a very big problem currently is increasing assaults based on social engineering tricks against work-force through social-networking websites that get them to download malware, says senior director of product marketing Ashish Mohindroo at Symantec. NetworkWorld reported this on August 31, 2011.

Meanwhile, nearly 71% of those surveyed witnessed security breaches over the last twelve months. Nevertheless, survey participants complaining of a rising frequency of assaults dropped to 21% during 2011 from 29% during 2010.

Moreover, 92% of those targeted with assaults witnessed losses including loss of consumer credit card data, theft of intellectual property, and downtime, with 84% of assaults resulting in real costs.

But businesses are dealing with these shortfalls by raising their IT departments' employees and finances. They're including the maximum number of employees within fields of web, network as well as endpoint security.

Further, according to the survey, businessmen are increasingly believing, it's most important to maintain their information and operations safe, wherein 41% of those surveyed stated that cyber-security unlike 12-months back was now significantly or somewhat increasingly vital.

Incidentally, 20% of small-sized firms suffered a $100,000 loss during 2010 because of online assaults, while for large companies, 20% suffered damages of at least $271,000.

Finally, the survey found that the most successful technique for lessening cyber-attacks was maintaining definition files and security patches up-to-date along with perimeter security.

Related article: Cyber Child abuser Sentenced To Imprisonment

» SPAMfighter News - 9/12/2011