This is the third Cost of Cyber Crime study from the Ponemon Institute, sponsored by HP Enterprise Security. This years study has a distinctly international flavour with nearly 200 organizations across various industry sectors being represented. Cyber attacks generally refer to criminal activity conducted via the Internet.

The attacks featured include stealing an organization’s intellectual property, confiscating online bank accounts, creating and distributing viruses on other computers, posting confidential business information on the Internet and disrupting a country’s critical national infrastructure. Consistent with the previous two studies, the loss or misuse of information is the most significant consequence of a cyber attack. Based on these findings, organizations need to be more vigilant in protecting their most sensitive and confidential information.

Key findings include:

• Cyber Crime continues to be costly
• They are commonplace
• Mitigation requires planning and focus

 Whatever the cause organizations need to be more alert than ever to the threat posed.