An employee of a corporation receives an e-mail from an unrecognized e-mail address, with an attachment and a subject line of “fwd: Joke” or “Here is the document you requested.” Innocently, the employee opens the message, only to learn that the attachment is a computer virus that has just invaded the employee’s computer and has begun to delete files from the employee’s hard drive. The virus has also forwarded itself to the first 50 e-mail addresses in the employee’s online address book, surreptitiously awaiting countless other individuals, both inside and outside the company, who also innocently open the innocuous-looking e-mail that seems to come from someone they know. Ultimately, the virus results in costs in excess of $2 billion worldwide for eradication, restoration of data and lost productivity. An internal investigation reveals that the spread of the virus within the employer’s system could have been prevented by downloading and installing a free security patch made available by the software developer six months previously.
Not too many years ago, a scenario such as the one described above might have seemed more fiction than fact, a corporate horror story not quite good enough for Hollywood. Today, however, few businesses remain untouched by viruses such as Code Red, Nimda and Melissa, and an increasing number have had direct experience with other kinds of computer security breaches. For example, in April, the Computer Security Institute (CSI) reported that 90 percent of the 500 corporations and government agencies responding to its 2002 survey said that they had experienced breaches in their computer security in the previous 12 months.[1]� Of those, 50 percent were able to quantify their losses, at a combined estimate of $455 million. This figure represents only a fraction of the total annual cost of security breaches to U.S. businesses and institutions. Despite these costly incidents, it is generally acknowledged that enterprises are not properly securing their systems from cyber attack.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
