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Losses Due To Cybercrime Decrease
Doug Caverly
Staff Writer
2006-06-15
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
Is cybercrime becoming a thing of the past? In short, no. Respondents to a survey by the Computer Security Institute (CSI) and the FBI reported an average of $168,000 in cybercrime losses. But that's down 18 percent from 2005, and is part of a four-year trend of lowering numbers.
In 2005, the survey found that there was $204,000 lost to cybercrime. And in 2004, the loss was even greater - the 2006 number represents a 68 percent drop from that figure. Robert Richardson, the editorial director at the CSI, spoke about the results at a conference.
"How do you go about reconciling the sense of things getting worse with the respondents who are saying they are losing less money?" Richardson asked, in reference to the ever-more-frequent headlines about security threats. The survey results indicated that viruses, theft, and insider abuse have all decreased.
The problem of insider abuse, especially, "may be somewhat overstated, according to the survey group," Richardson said. Roughly one-third of respondents reported a complete lack of losses due to insider abuse, while 29 percent attributed less than one-fifth of overall losses to that particular menace.
The survey results seem encouraging. "Overall, you have a picture that is pretty good in many ways," Richardson stated. "We're seeing fewer of some of the attacks that have been such a plague for us in many years, and respondents are using less and less money."
Businesses should still keep their guard up, though, and individuals would do well to be particularly careful. "Consumers are the low-hanging fruit," Richardson said, referring to the relative ease with which they may be targeted. Consumer cybercrime losses were not included in the survey.
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About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for SecurityProNews, InternetFinancialNews, SearchNewz, and WebProNews.
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