Cybercrime goes unnoticed
Rising cybercrime is costing UK companies millions of pounds a year, yet organisations remain ill equipped to cope with computer fraud, says information...
Rising cybercrime is costing UK companies millions of pounds a year, yet organisations remain ill equipped to cope with computer fraud, says information security firm, Integralis.
In a survey carried out among the senior directors of 800 FTSE-1000 companies, Integralis discovered that virus contamination has caused almost 80 per cent of businesses large financial losses.
Denial of service attacks, electronic theft of company information and sabotage of data or networks have also cost between 10 and 15 per cent of businesses money. Yet despite these findings, Integralis says that companies still do not have adequate information secrity policies and procedures in place.
According to its research, many directors continue to use obvious passwords, for example, even though internal instances of computer fraud were found to be high. Over half of the respondents said their firms had experienced internal e-mail abuse while 62 per cent found offensive junk mail being distributed by an employee. In 32 per cent of the cases companies had discovered disgruntled employees passing on confidential information to a third party. alone is just not enough," he says.
Richard Walters, head of the cybercrime unit at Integralis believes the issue is one of global concern and advises businesses to become proactive. "Advances in technology are providing new channels for criminal activity. Information security must be taken seriously and financial resources invested in building a solid security system. Issuing passwords or installing a firewall alone is just not enough," he says.
