[AfrICANN-discuss] Cyber attacks dominate security woes

[Anne-Rachel Inné]

http://www.itbrief.co.nz/200903253320/cyber-attacks-dominate-security-woes.php
Cyber attacks dominate security woes  [image:
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  Written by Kelly Gregor
  Wednesday, 25 March 2009

Cyber risks have become the biggest IT security threat to New Zealand
businesses, Symantec says.

The anti-virus provider released the results of its 2009 Managed Security in
the Enterprise Report today, which showed cyber risks and actual attacks had
vastly increased over the past two years.

Nearly all the organisations questioned by Symantec reported a loss in
revenue due to heightened threats and decreased consumer trust.

Symantec said inadequate budgets, increased regulatory pressures and
staffing problems were the main issues in monitoring cyber threats.

Symantec Asia Pacific and Japan senior manager Peter Sparkes said New
Zealand businesses were no longer isolated from trojans and worms that had
previously targeted larger more multi-national companies.

Sparks said small companies were now being targeted as much as major
financial and government institutions because the value of personal data and
information had increased.

He said viruses used to be aimed at creating havoc, where as today it is
intended for a more malicious purpose such as extracting detailed personal
information to be sold.

“Companies in NZ are as much affected as anyone else. It’s all one domain
now. Gone are the days when this only happened to financial services.”

Sparks said Symantec had received reports that the majority of companies
questioned had lost money due to cyber threats and attacks.

“Businesses aren’t as trusted. This is having a significant impact on
productivity and businesses have seen a direct loss from it. Customers are
less trusting and in turn this affects the company’s brand and market
position.”

More than 80% of companies surveyed reported an increase in cyber attacks,
where as 31% saw attacks on a regular basis and 10% claimed to have suffered
form an extreme amount of attacks.

Symantec ranked cyber attacks as twice as likely to affect businesses as
traditional crime such as burglary and natural disasters and four times more
likely than terrorism.

Symantec managed services vice president Grant Geyer said: “IT management in
large enterprises is caught between a rock and a hard place.

“Cyber security is a growing problem, yet organisations are having trouble
addressing the problem. Managed security services provide a way for many
organisations to close the gap and ensure their information and assets are
protected,” Geyer said.

The report was based on a study of 1000 IT managers in the US and Europe
during January 2009.
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