Hardware and software failures causing most security problems in Cyprus, Portugal and Finland

Incidents are significantly more prevalent in these countries than Denmark, Greece or the Czech Republic for example

Of enterprises across all the 27 member states of the EU, those in Cyprus, Portugal and Finland suffered most security incidents due to hardware and software failure at 26 per cent each, with the average being just 12 per cent, according to a report from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

The data forms part of the results of a survey conducted across the EU27 countries at the beginning of 2010.

Other countries that suffered from a higher than average number of security incidents due to hardware or software failure were Denmark (24 per cent), Greece (23 per cent), the Czech Republic (22 per cent) and Slovakia (20 per cent).

However, incidents involving the destruction or corruption of data due to malicious software infection or unauthorised access were reported by just 5 per cent of enterprises on average.

However, some countries were worse affected than others, with 16 per cent of enterprises in Slovakia reporting a problem, as did 14 per cent in Portugal, 11 per cent in Spain and 10 per cent in Greece.

The shares of enterprises reporting unavailability of ICT services due to an attack from outside were highest in Slovakia (11 per cent) and the Netherlands (7 per cent).

In the majority of the EU member states, the disclosure of confidential data due to intrusion, pharming or phishing attacks was reported by 1 per cent or less of enterprises in 2009.

Around two thirds of enterprises in Italy, Ireland and Slovenia use passwords or tokens for user authentication While more than 60 per cent of enterprises in Italy (66 per cent), Ireland and Slovenia (both 64 per cent), Spain (63 per cent) and Luxembourg (62 per cent) used a strong password authentication and/or a hardware token for user identification as a security measure.

In January 2010, these procedures were utilised by less than 30 per cent of enterprises in Slovakia (20 per cent), Hungary (24 per cent) and Romania (29 per cent).