Security Breaches Know No Boundaries

Alock might keep an honest man honest, but companies in all kinds of industries find it necessary to guard against more than the occasional IT security breach by a wayward employee. And there are a few sectors that lead the pack in how vulnerable and therefore cautious they are about security.

Financial services and health care are the sectors that seem to have gotten the message most clearly, according to InformationWeek Research's Global Information Security Survey. This makes sense given the vital information these companies manage, as well as the government requirements placed on them to protect information about financial and medical records.

Government agencies are among the most battle-weary of all the sectors surveyed. Nearly half of the government managers in the global study encountered a virus, worm, or Trojan-horse attack in the past year, a pattern that holds true in the United States as well. Schools ranked the highest, with 60% being attacked. Two in five banking and financial-services and nearly half of health-care companies fell victim to a Trojan-horse, worm, or virus attack in the past 12 months, compared with 37% and 44%, respectively, in the United States.

Worldwide, schools also are the leading targets for denial-of-service incidents, with 22% of educational institutions reporting such cyberassaults, compared with 13% of government, 12% of banking and financial-services, and 10% of health-care sites.

The telecommunications sector, often cited as a prime target for cyberterrorism, appears to be attacked at the same pace as other industries. Almost half report a virus or worm attack in the past year. Fifteen percent of companies in the United States and overseas report an unauthorized entry in the last 12 months.

In almost every occurrence, analysis of server or firewall logs is what alerted these industries that a security breach had taken place.

To compare your company's security approach with that of others in your industry and at your revenue level, go to InformationWeek's security assessment tool, available at informationweek.com/benchmark/security.htm.