Following is the text of the Computer Security Institute press release:

April 7, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CYBER CRIME BLEEDS U.S. CORPORATIONS, SURVEY SHOWS;
FINANCIAL LOSSES FROM ATTACKS CLIMB FOR THIRD YEAR IN A ROW

SAN FRANCISCO - The Computer Security Institute (CSI) announced today the results of its seventh annual "Computer Crime and Security Survey."
The "Computer Crime and Security Survey" is conducted by CSI with the participation of the San Francisco Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Computer Intrusion Squad. The aim of this effort is to raise the level of security awareness, as well as help determine the scope of computer crime in the United States.

Based on responses from 503 computer security practitioners in U.S. corporations, government agencies, financial institutions, medical institutions and universities, the findings of the "2002 Computer Crime and Security Survey" confirm that the threat from computer crime and other information security breaches continues unabated and that the financial toll is mounting.

Highlights of the "2002 Computer Crime and Security Survey" include:

--Ninety percent of respondents (primarily large corporations and government agencies) detected computer security breaches within the last twelve months.
--Eighty percent acknowledged financial losses due to computer breaches.
--Forty-four percent (223 respondents) were willing and/or able to quantify their financial losses. These 223 respondents reported $455,848,000 in financial losses.
--As in previous years, the most serious financial losses occurred through theft of proprietary information (41 respondents reported $170,827,000) and financial fraud (40 respondents reported $115,753,000).
--For the fifth year in a row, more respondents (74%) cited their Internet connection as a frequent point of attack than cited their internal systems as a frequent point of attack (33%).
--Thirty-four percent reported the intrusions to law enforcement. (In 1996, only 16% acknowledged reporting intrusions to law enforcement.)

Respondents detected a wide range of attacks and abuses. Here are some examples of attacks and abuses on the rise:

--Forty percent detected system penetration from the outside.
--Forty percent detected denial of service attacks.
--Seventy-eight percent detected employee abuse of Internet access privileges (for example, downloading pornography or pirated software, or inappropriate use of e-mail systems).
--Eighty-five percent detected computer viruses.

For the fourth year, we asked some questions about electronic commerce over the Internet. Here are some of the results:

--Ninety-eight percent of respondents have WWW sites.
--Fifty-two percent conduct electronic commerce on their sites.
--Thirty-eight percent suffered unauthorized access or misuse on their Web sites within the last twelve months. Twenty-one percent said that they didn't know if there had been unauthorized access or misuse.
--Twenty-five percent of those acknowledging attacks reported from two to five incidents. Thirty-nine percent reported ten or more incidents.
--Seventy percent of those attacked reported vandalism (only 64% in 2000).
--Fifty-five percent reported denial of service (only 60% in 2000).
--Twelve percent reported theft of transaction information.
--Six percent reported financial fraud (only 3% in 2000).

Patrice Rapalus, CSI Director, remarks that the "Computer Crime and Security Survey," has served as a reality check for industry and government:

"Over its seven-year life span, the survey has told a compelling story. It has underscored some of the verities of the information security profession, for example that technology alone cannot thwart cyber attacks and that there is a need for greater cooperation between the private sector and the government. It has also challenged some of the profession's 'conventional wisdom,' for example that the 'threat from inside the organization is far greater than the threat from outside the organization' and that 'most hack attacks are perpetrated by juveniles on joy-rides in cyberspace.' Over the seven-year life span of the survey, a sense of the 'facts on the ground' has emerged. There is much more illegal and unauthorized activity going on in cyberspace than corporations admit to their clients, stockholders and business partners or report to law enforcement. Incidents are widespread, costly and commonplace. Post-9/11, there seems to be a greater appreciation for how much information security means not only to each individual enterprise but also to the economy itself and to society as a whole. Hopefully, this greater appreciation will translate into increased staffing levels, more investment in training and enhanced organizational clout for those responsible for information security."

Executive Assistant Director (EAD) Bruce J. Gebhardt, former Special Agent in-Charge FBI San Francisco, stresses the need for the cooperation between the government and the private sector that the annual survey reflects.
"The United States' increasing dependency on information technology to manage and operate our nation's critical infrastructures provides a prime target to would be cyber-terrorists. Now, more than ever, the government and private sector need to work together to share information and be more cognitive of information security so that our nation's critical infrastructures are protected from cyber-terrorists."

CSI, established in 1974, is a San Francisco-based association of information security professionals. It has thousands of members worldwide and provides a wide variety of information and education programs to assist practitioners in protecting the information assets of corporations and governmental organizations.

The FBI, in response to an expanding number of instances in which criminals have targeted major components of information and economic infrastructure systems, has established the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) located at FBI headquarters and the Regional Computer Intrusion Squads located in selected offices throughout the United States. The NIPC, a joint partnership among federal agencies and private industry, is designed to serve as the government's lead mechanism for preventing and responding to cyber attacks on the nation's infrastructures. (These infrastructures include telecommunications, energy, transportation, banking and finance, emergency services and government operations).

The mission of Regional Computer Intrusion Squads is to investigate violations of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (Title 8, Section 1030), including intrusions to public switched networks, major computer network intrusions, privacy violations, industrial espionage, pirated computer software and other crimes.