Hackers run riot in enterprises

Nobody immune, report finds

Almost a third of online companies come under regular attack by criminal hackers, according to survey results released this week by Symantec.

Questioning security staff at 2,100 companies in 27 countries, Symantec found that only a quarter of respondents experienced no Internet attacks last year.

29 per cent of companies said they came under attack "on a regular basis" or more frequently. Every single person responding to the survey said that their company experienced some form of digital loss, such as theft of customer credit cards or intellectual property, in 2009.

The estimated average loss in revenue and productivity per firm was $2 million. Symantec said that one of the main causes of such problems is a lack of staff and resources.

The results were published in its 2010 State of Enterprise Security report.