IP: `Netspionage'' is the real security threat on the Net : Risks Digest 21.05

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> From: "NewsScan" <newsscan () newsscan com>
> Subject: ``Netspionage'' is the real security threat on the Net
>
> Teenage hackers who deface government sites or steal credit-card numbers
> attract a lot of attention, but experts say the real problem of cybercrime
> is corporate-sponsored proprietary information theft committed by
> professionals who rarely get caught. According to the American Society for
> Industrial Security, Fortune 1000 companies sustained losses of more than
> $45 billion last year from thefts of proprietary information, and a survey
> by the Computer Security Institute indicates over half of 600 companies
> polled said they suspected their competitors were a likely source of
> cyberattack. "Your competitors no longer have to be across town, or even
> across the country; they're in other countries that have different laws and
> business ethics," says Richard Power, who conducts the annual CSI survey.
> "Culpability is much less. There is a lawless frontier in terms of theft of
> trade secrets." Experts agree that while juvenile hackers often leave
> calling cards enabling them to be traced, professional information thieves
> are almost impossible to catch. What's even more frustrating is that many
> firms never know their systems have been breached. "It's difficult for
> people to see the theft of information," says the owner of a security firm.
> "Information is the only asset that can be copied or stolen but nothing can
> appear to be missing. You can still have the information... but have lost
> the value of that information." (MSNBC, 11 Sep 2000
> http://www.msnbc.com/news/457161.asp; NewsScan Daily, 12 September 2000)