Almost 90% of US companies experienced some kind of
computer security attack in 2005, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) has said, with many attacks costing firms an
average $24,000 (£14,200).
In a study of 2,000 businesses of varied size, the FBI said 87%
of firms had seen an attack on their systems, and 20% revealed they
had been attacked 20 or more times last year.
Virus or spyware infections were the most common occurrences,
and a smaller number reported network port scans to gain access to
systems or data sabotage.
The FBI said 33% of companies reported port scans of their
systems, but the bureau said the occurrence of port scan was much
more common in the field, indicating that many firms were not
actually aware of some attacks on their businesses.
The report of the 2,000 businesses logged around 5,400 computer
attacks companies knew about.
The survey found that 64% of attacks cost companies money to put
right, with the average cost being $24,000. Cleaning up virus
infections were the costliest incidents, said firms.
The total cost of incidents was $31.7m and virus attacks
accounted for $11.9m of this figure.