The Hindu

• Survey says threat of cyber crime comes from different sources 

Bangalore, Mar 28: The Cyber Crime Police here may just be getting into action, but a global survey shows that information technology executives in India believe more strongly than their peers in other countries that cyber crime cost them more than physical crime.

The IBM survey has reported that 67 per cent of local IT executives who participated in the survey look at cyber crime more seriously. The cost stems primarily from the cost of revenues, loss of market capitalisation, damage to their brands and loss of existing customers. The global survey conducted among 3000 CIOs or others qualified to answer questions about their company's IT practices, included 150 respondents from India. They were drawn from the healthcare, financial, retail and manufacturing sectors.

The report says that the threat of cyber crime now comes from a number of different sources; many are new areas that companies have to be mindful of. Ninety-one Indian IT executives, compared with 84 per cent of their global counterparts, believe that organised criminal groups with technical sophistication are replacing lone hackers. And, alarmingly, 78 per cent think threats to corporate security now comes from inside the organisation.

In the light of growing cyber crime threat, 68 per cent of Indian businesses believe that are adequately safeguarded, compared with 59 per cent of global businesses.

When asked which two initiatives were the most important to undertake over the year, Indian IT executives indicated: upgrading their "firewall" and implementing vulnerability management systems on their networks.