IT threats past and present

The Information Security Breaches Survey is the longest running piece of research of its kind in the world, having been first commissioned by the DTI – now the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform – back in 1992. Analysing its 1998 incarnation – the Business Information Security Survey – throws up some interesting comparisons with current trends in IT security.

Data breaches were pretty commonplace a decade ago but not as rife as they appear to be today, with 60 per cent of large firms reporting incidents in 1998 compared with 96 per cent this year. The nature of threats has changed significantly; the percentage of large firms affected by viruses dropped from 30 to 21 which may be due to their being written with stealth in mind rather than fame. The insider threat has also become more pronounced, with the percentage of firms suffering from staff misuse of systems up from 14 to 47 per cent.

Firms also seem to be taking their disaster recovery planning more seriously, which is not that surprising given recent high-profile natural disasters. The proportion of firms with disaster recovery plans rose from 56 per cent to 72 per cent. However, the fact that many organisations are still neglecting to test their plans - currently at 35 per cent - is a cause for concern.