Cyber crime costs double for Aussie businesses
Source: ITnewsAustralia
By Siobhan Chapman
Date: May 12, 2003
The cost of computer crime to Australian businesses more than doubled in the last 12 months, according to an annual
computer crime survey. Released today, the 2003 Australian Computer Crime and Security Survey found that total
losses from computer crime and misuse was almost $12 million over the 214 organisations surveyed, more than double
the quantified losses for 2002 at $5.7 million. Financial fraud topped the list as the biggest cause of loss at around
$3.5 million. Laptop theft ($2.25 million), virus, worm and trojan infection ($2.23 million), and insider abuse of
resources ($1.27 million) were the other largest cause of financial loss. The number of respondents that experienced
laptop theft increased 21 percent on last year's results.
In terms of attacks, external attacks were more prevalent than internally-sourced attacks. Of those who experienced
attacks, 91 percent experienced externally-sourced attacks and 36 percent experienced internally-sourced attacks,
the survey stated. Most, 51 percent, of these attacks were believed to be indiscriminate. The most common suspected
motive after this, at 41 percent, was in order to use company's network or bandwidth resources. Average losses for those
who quantified the cost of computer crime, attack or system abuse in 2003 is up by 18 percent at $93,657 compared to
$77,084 in 2002.
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