AUSTRALIA COMPUTER CRIMES COSTING MILLIONS
May 25, 2005 Wednesday

NEWS; Pg. 15

258 words


Computer crimes costing millions

Jennifer Dudley

COMPUTER attacks, virus infections, identity theft and stealing cost Australian business and government organisations million of dollars this year, according to an IT survey.

And attacks against Australia's critical national infrastructure were often more prevalent, threatening services that could "impact on the social or economic well-being of the nation".

The 2005 Australian Computer Crime and Security Survey, conducted by the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team, Australian Federal Police and state police services, surveyed private and public organisations in 19 industries.

AusCERT managing director Graham Ingram said despite the high price of electronic attacks, good news did emerge from the study.

He said businesses had deflected more electronic attacks this year than last, with 35 per cent of businesses experiencing harmful attacks, compared with 49 per cent the year before.

"It's very positive that most of the attacks have gone down, although they haven't stopped," he said. "We don't see it reversing in that sense, but we've certainly slowed it down."

The survey found 83 per cent of business detected at least one electronic attack, 56 per cent discovered incidents of computer crime, such as laptop theft, and 69 per cent suffered incidents of insider misuse or abuse of technology.

Electronic attacks cost the Australian organisations almost $13 million over the year.

But Mr Ingram said larger security problems were likely in the consumer market and among small and medium-sized businesses.

May 24, 2005