From Purdue University’s CERIAS
The economic crisis has affected virtually every facet of society, and information security is no exception. In a new report titled Unsecured Economies: Protecting Vital Information, researchers from Purdue University’s CERIAS security center lay out the fairly bleak view of what the tough times have done to corporate IT security.
The report finds that intellectual property is particulary vulnerable in a down economy, as workers who either fear losing their job or have just been laid off look for any opportunity to profit. In a blog post on the report, CERIAS Executive Director Gene Spafford explains:
The conclusions of the report are somewhat pessimistic about prospects for cyber security in the coming few years. The combination of economic pressures, weak efforts at law enforcement, international differences in perceptions of privacy and security, and the continuing challenges of providing secured computing are combining to place vast amounts of valuable intellectual property (IP) at risk. The report presents estimates that IP worth billions of dollars (US) was stolen or damaged last year, and we can only expect the losses to increase.
You can download the full report here (pdf).
