Declining IT budgets combined with growing cyber threats from around the globe has put IT executives in the uncomfortable position of having to pray for the best while expecting the worst. eSecurity Planet examines just how pervasive this new breed of uber-aggressive cyber attacks is and what companies can do to protect their data.
Cyber attacks like the high-profile Operation Aurora incident that targeted Google, Adobe Systems, and two dozen other U.S. companies are becoming the rule rather than the exception, according to a new survey commissioned by McAfee and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
More than half (54 percent) of 600 IT executives surveyed said their companies had already suffered a large-scale attack or stealthy infiltration from organized crime gangs, terrorists or nation-states, the report said.
The initial estimated cost of downtime associated with a major cyber attack incident is more than $6.3 million a day — expensive, but only a drop in the bucket compared to the price of losing key intellectual property or having a supply chain or Web site disrupted by strategically placed malware.
McAfee and the CSIS presented their report at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, hoping to shine an even brighter light on the serious damage hackers and nation-sponsored cyber terrorists could wreak on critical infrastructure such as electrical grids, oil and gas production, telecommunications and transportation networks.