Intrusions At Large Companies Were Up Sharply In 2010, Study Says

More than 66 percent of enterprises say they have encountered system intrusions in the past 12 months, a significant increase from the 41 percent that reported such intrusions in 2009.

VanDyke Software's Sixth Annual Enterprise IT Security Survey finds a noticeable increase in the proportion of large companies reporting a breach of their user machines, office networks, and/or servers.

Between 2005 and 2008, the percentage of large enterprises reporting an intrusion ranged from 51 percent to 58 percent, VanDyke says.

This year's 67 percent is the highest reported level in five years.

For small- and medium-sized enterprises, the percentage reporting an unauthorized breach remained fairly steady between this year and last.

Among mid-size companies between 1,000 and 4,999 employees, the proportion reporting a breach was 57 percent in 2009 and 59 percent this year, according to VanDyke.

Among companies with 100 to 999 employees, the percentage reporting an intrusion was 45 percent in 2009 and 43 percent in 2010.

Among micro-size companies with 99 or fewer employees, the proportion reporting an intrusion was 25 percent in both 2009 and 2010.

Fourteen percent of survey respondents blamed hacker/network attacks as the cause of their intrusions, while 12 percent blamed lack of adequate security policies.

Malware was listed as the biggest risk for intrusion by 25 percent of respondents, while 17 percent listed hacking and 12 percent mentioned employee error or carelessness.