Everybody Gets Hacked But You
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Home users worried about the results of a recent study indicating that cybercrime is flourishing can relax, even though their computers are probably vulnerable to all sorts of hack attacks.
The study, a joint project of the Computer Security Institute and the FBI's San Francisco computer crime squad, painted a dire picture. Ninety percent of the 540 respondents surveyed detected computer security breaches in the past year, and the 44 percent who were willing or able to name a dollar figure claimed a total loss of $455.8 million dollars to hack attacks.
Although the survey's respondents were primarily employees of large corporations, widespread media coverage of the report has influenced some home users who, plagued by seemingly constant security alerts, had already begun to look at their computers with fear and loathing.
"When I heard about the report on the news, I figured if businesses can't protect their machines, then what hope do I have?" Nadine Gorman, a graphic artist, said. "It seems that home users would be easier targets than big companies. I don't have any security experts on my payroll."
But according to those security experts, except in specific and rare instances, home users are far less likely than businesses to be the direct or indirect targets of malicious hackers.
"Except for a virus delivered by e-mail, most home users are unlikely to be affected by the security holes that have been plaguing the corporate world," Paul McNabb, deputy director of the Center for Advanced Research in Information Security, said. "Very few hackers have much interest in attacking home computers."
But security experts also cautioned that most home computers are wide open to hack attacks, and in rare cases they might be targeted.
The average home user has access to sensitive work-related information, much of which spills over onto their home computers, according to Richard Power, editorial director of the Computer Security Institute (CSI) and author of the cybercrime report.
Power said there is some indication that stealing data has become a burgeoning business, and hackers for hire will target the unprotected home computers of people who work behind well-guarded perimeters at work.
"I call it the Deutch factor," Powers said. "John Deutch was a brilliant and distinguished man working as the CIA director during the Clinton Administration. He ended up the subject of a very high-profile and damaging investigation after it was discovered that he had been accessing classified files on his home PC. Because of this egregious breach of security he actually had to receive a presidential pardon."
The vast majority of home users are probably not dealing with classified national security secrets, but according to the survey, theft of propriety information resulted in an annual loss of $170.8 million loss over the last 12 months.
"There are definitely crackers out there searching out that kind of information to resell it," Powers said.
E-business was also cited as a prime target in the report, with financial fraud costing companies $115.7 million. But security experts said users aren't directly impacted by attacks on e-commerce sites.