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92% of IT professionals admit to cyber attacks in 2008; data breaches, ID theft bad and getting worse

The IT professionals surveyed below will tell you why you need LifeLock identity theft services. A whopping 92% of them say their organizations suffered cyberattacks in 2008. Go to LifeLock.com. Use LifeLock promo code Defense and get the lowest price.

If you think 2008 was a bad year for data breaches (and it was), don’t expect 2009 to be any better. In fact, 2009 is expected to be worse, and the end of failing security efforts is nowhere in sight, according to the 600 IT professionals interviewed by the Ponemon Institute.

The biggest risks the participants identified are:

• Outsourcing, cited by over 50% of participants: More organizations are farming out customer service and human resources functions as a cost saving measure, but many of this year’s data breaches occurred as a result of contracted employees’ and business partners’ failure to protect their clients’ information.

• Mobility, cited by over 90% of participants: Laptop computers and handheld devices such as iPhones, Blackberrys and flash drives are the single most common cause of data breaches.

• Cloud computing, cited by 61% of participants: Newer technologies, including cloud computing and virtualization provide additional access points for cyberthieves.

• Cybercriminals, cited by 46% of IT security workers and 24% of operational employees: Hacking is now within the realm of ever more sophisticated international crime syndicates capable of stealing information affecting millions of customers.

Perhaps the most illuminating response to the question “Has your organization suffered a cyber attack within the past year?” An alarming 92% of the respondents said “Yes”.

The Ponemon Institute independently researches data security risks in the private and public sectors. Lumension, a security applications vendor, sponsored the study.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Data breach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

2 Responses to “92% of IT professionals admit to cyber attacks in 2008; data breaches, ID theft bad and getting worse”

  1. lance says:
    December 15, 2008 at 4:26 pm

    I can imagine that Mobile devices would be a big one. Why try and get the information out of the company when careless individuals will bring it out of the company for you.

  2. Caroline McC. says:
    February 22, 2009 at 5:43 pm

    92%? 92%!!!?!!??? Who are these “professionals” and how did they get their jobs??!!!??

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