Security breaches growing problem for Aussie, NZ SMBs

Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 12 May 2009 10:10

Business IT - Security

With the spread of malicious code activity growing at a record pace globally last year, Australian and New Zealand small to medium sized business copped their share of problems, with many of them reporting security breaches and loss of data.

Releasing the findings of its 2009 global SMB security and storage survey today, Symantec revealed that more than half (58 percent) of SMB respondents in Australia and New Zealand experienced security breaches, where information has been subject to unauthorised access, and often where the data is lost, stolen, or hacked.
 
Symantec says that malicious code activity continued to grow at a record pace throughout 2008, primarily targeting confidential information of computer users.  As a response to this record growth, Symantec says it created more than 1.6 million new malicious code signatures, equating to more than 60 percent of the total malicious code signatures ever created by the firm.

The report also noted that 90 percent of all threats detected by Symantec during 2008 attempted to steal confidential information.

Craig Scroggie, vice president and managing director, Pacific region for Symantec, warned that small businesses in Australia and New Zealand needed protection from a rapidly expanding and increasingly complex range of internal and external security threats.

“The threat landscape continues to shift at an alarming pace and small businesses need to ensure they can confidently and simply manage these challenges.  Through the adoption of security technology and education of security policies and processes, small businesses can reduce the number of security breaches, minimising the impact to their bottom line, brand and reputation.”

According to Scroggie, the importance of protecting email, information, networks, servers and desktops rated as the top goals for the survey respondents (mentioned as somewhat/extremely important by at least 76 percent). Viruses (68 percent) were identified as the top security worry for the survey respondents, says Scroggie, and more than 60 percent were somewhat or extremely concerned about phishing scams, spam, data breaches and the loss of confidential information via email or USB devices.
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