Internet attacks against public and private organisations’
networks leapt 28% in the past 6 months, according to new research
conducted by the US-based internet security firm Riptech and
reported by the Washington Post. The report reveals that most of
the attacks targeted financial services, technology and power
companies.
According to Riptech’s findings, successful internet attacks
from January to June 2002 numbered more than 180,000, and many
organisations were attacked more than once during the same period.
The report points out that 70% of power and energy companies were
attacked at least once. The corresponding figure for the previous
six-month period was 57%.
The sample from which the attack trends in the report were
derived consists of more than 400 companies in more than 25
countries throughout the world, including government agencies,
public and private organisations. The data are broken down by
company characteristics, such as industry and company size.
