The survey has also sparked a warning that the trend towards a growing number of security breaches in Australian businesses is unlikely to improve within the next year.
Released today, the 2002 Australian Computer Crime and Security Survey found that 67 percent of organisations surveyed had been attacked this year.
Dean Kingsley, head of IT security consulting at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, said it was an indication that IT departments needed to better educate executive management and boards of directors about the implications.
-The rate of computer crime is skyrocketing," Kingsley said.
According to Kingsley, IT managers need to take a different approach to educating decision makers within their companies to make sure resources are directed to the areas of greatest need.
The Australian survey was carried out jointly by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, AusCERT and the NSW Police. Comparisons with the US were possible due to the 2002 Computer Security Institute/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey carried out there.
The Australian survey also found that 50 percent of companies reported security breaches from within. But the greatest threat was found to be external, with 87 percent of companies surveyed reporting breaches from outside the business.
Graham Ingram, general manager at AusCERT, said the trends reported in the survey were consistent with what it had observed. Ingram believes it's unlikely that the underlying trends will improve next year.
