Study: Security Breaches Afflict Most Enterprises, Governments

In the past year, 84 percent of enterprises, as well as state and local governments, reported some type of security breaches, according to a new survey released by Computer Associates International.

The survey also found that security breaches have increased 17 percent in the last three years, according to the survey released by the Islandia, N.Y., IT management software company on July 5.

The survey, conducted by The Strategic Counsel, questioned 642 enterprises and government agencies between January and May 2006. The companies had average annual revenues of $1.4 billion and IT budgets of $22 million.

Those enterprises and government agencies surveyed reported that when a security breach happened, 54 percent lost productivity, 20 percent reported lost revenue and 25 percent claimed to have suffered some sort of public backlash with either a lost of reputation or trust with customers.

When an enterprise or agency did find a security problem, 38 percent reported that the breach was internal.

The CA survey also found that many enterprises do not take the problem seriously enough. Only one percent of those surveyed thought IT security spending was too high, while 38 percent said it was much too low.

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