UK NEW STUDY SHOWS DRAMATIC RISE IN CORPORATE COMPUTER SECURITY BREACHES New Scientist
14:31 27 April 04

NewScientist.com news service

A study of computer security breaches commissioned by the British government has shown a dramatic rise in serious attacks against UK companies over the past year.

The DTI's Information Security Breaches Survey 2004, released on Tuesday, was carried out by the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers. It interviewed 1001 computer security managers and found that 68 percent of UK companies suffered a malicious incident in 2003.

This includes computer viruses and virtual break-ins, as well as fraud, theft and misuse involving computers. The figure has risen significantly, up from 44 percent in 2002 and 24 percent in 2000.

PricewaterhouseCoopers blames the rise on the increasing use of the internet by businesses for communication and transactions. Another factor is the growing number of people accessing their company servers from outside the office, which creates more potential points of entry for viruses and hackers.

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