IT Week: Net crime set to rocket

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/000904/15/ai71h.html

Monday September 4, 6:01 PM

'Get your security systems in order or suffer the consequences!', says
crime trends report

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has warned UK businesses to
put their security systems in order or suffer the consequences,
raising the spectre of higher insurance premiums for companies that
want to protect themselves from online threats.

Future Crime Trends in the United Kingdom, a report published last
week by the ABI, warns business to expect cybercrime to rocket in the
next 20 years. The document was prepared by the Building Research
Establishment, an independent research group.

Although the report deals with all areas in which crime is likely to
grow, it pays special attention to information technology because of
its increasing use and the speed at which it changes.

Mary Francis, the ABI's director general, said that access to
information had improved over the past few years and would continue to
do so, but that this carries the risk of very dangerous crimes. "We
are increasingly reliant on the smooth flow of information. Any
disruption is, at best, inconvenient, and, at worst, life
threatening," she said.

The report predicts that malicious hacking, viruses and email abuse
will increase significantly. Email abuse, denial-of-service-attacks,
viruses and the hacking of sites will come from sources outside and
inside organisations, it says. The ABI also warns that the increasing
amount of hacking software available will compound the problem.

Francis said that she hoped that the findings of the report would help
organisations identify the vulnerable points and encourage them to
build as much protection as possible into their information systems.

Suppliers of security solutions are beginning to wake up to companies'
fears of liability for online attacks. In the US, Counterpane Internet
Security is offering insurance policies to protect against loss of
revenues and information assets caused by Internet and e-commerce
security breaches.

Rising cost of insurance:


The Association of British Insurers is warning of rapid growth in
Internet-based crimes

Credit-card fraud, intellectual property theft, email abuse and
hacking are likely to increase

Companies are being urged to improve their security measures or face
the consequences.


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