Survey: Cyber-Crime Continues To Climb

Compiled ByDeborah Austin More than ever, the Internet is a point of cyber-crime attacks, say business and government respondents in the "2001 Computer Crime and Security Survey" conducted by the Computer Security Institute (CSI). While 31% identified internal systems as a frequent point of attack, 70% cited their Internet connections -- up from 59% in the 2000 survey. Eighty-five percent detected computer security breaches within the past year; 64% acknowledged related financial losses, which are rising. The 186 year-2001 survey respondents who quantified such losses -- 35% of all respondents -- reported a total $377.8 million lost. In 2000, losses from 249 quantifying respondents totaled $265.6 million. But awareness also mounts: This year, 36% of respondents reported security breaches to law enforcement, up from 25% in 2000 and 16% in 1996, the annual survey's first year. The survey -- conducted with participation of the San Francisco Federal Bureau of Investigation -- polls U.S. corporations, government agencies, and universities. CSI is a San Francisco-based association of information security professionals.