FBI Reports on Cyber Crime
January 19, 2006
Almost 90 percent of surveyed U.S. organizations experienced computer security incidents in a year’s time, and 20 percent of them indicated that they had experienced 20 or more attacks, according the 2005 Computer Crime Survey released by the FBI on Wednesday.
The survey was based on responses from more than 2,000 public and private organizations in four states with 13.1 percent of the companies in finance or banking. The most prevalent types of computer attacks were viruses at 83.7 percent and spyware at 79.5 percent. More than one in five organizations said they experienced port scans and network or data sabotage. More than 64 percent of the attacks produced a loss to the organizations with viruses and worms accounting for $12 million of the $32 million in total losses.
Attacks originated from 36 different countries, the FBI said, with 26.1 percent originating within the United States and 23.9 percent coming from China. However, 44 percent of the computer intrusions originated from within the reporting organization. In commenting on the survey, Security Consultant Frank Abagnale said, “Every company, both large and small, should study this survey and use the data as the basis for making changes. Those who ignore it do so at their peril."
Source: FBI
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