Winning the War on eCrime – the Fight Continues

This year an increased number of large corporate organisations participated in the Information Security Service (tISS) eCrime Survey 2009, the results of which have recently been released. Although most organisations are reasonably confident that they have a sufficient budget, they tend to be very concerned with the volume, complexity and alarming rate at which security threats are increasing. By and large corporate spend on IS (Information Systems) security has held up well, with 66% of respondent organisations maintaining the level of spend, while 23% have increased budgets slightly.
There are growing concerns about eCrime largely due to the recession and the growth of sophisticated attacks, especially from Eastern Europe and China. Targeted infection by malicious software (malware) is a growing concern and this is seen as a high priority for the coming year, particularly malware on customers' machines for internet retailers.
The survey also indicates increased worries over insider threats, whether deliberate or otherwise. Internal sabotage, wireless network abuse and external intrusion resulting in theft of information/data, although not commonly experienced yet, are currently a cause of concern and predicted as high priority threats for the future.
Another area of increasing concern is the use of bogus company websites by criminals to defraud the public, resulting in loss of reputation by companies. Targeted system attack by unauthorised outsiders, telecoms fraud and financial fraud remain common, but have decreased slightly from last year. The theft of IT equipment, although common, is not regarded as a high priority for the next couple of years.
For more details read the full tISS eCrime Survey 2009 Report.
The 'Winning the war on eCrime - the fight continues' workshop consisted of presentations given by two leading industry experts and a group discussion/Q&A session. The workshop was attended by 13 delegates from a wide cross-section of ten organisations.