A new report by security vendor McAfee has revealed that companies lost an estimated $4.6bn (£3.2bn) worth of intellectual property (IP) during 2008 and spent a further $600m (£420m) repairing the damage.
Researchers from Purdue University’s Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security quizzed over 800 CIOs from the US, UK, Germany, Japan, China, India, Brazil and Dubai.
McAfee CEO Dave DeWalt spoke to CBR about the results and said that the findings suggested the figure around the world could be much larger.
“The findings are startling,” he said. “We believe the potential figure for total losses worldwide could be as much as $1trillion.”
The company suggested that situation could get worse as businesses are put under increasing pressure to reduce costs during the economic downturn. Reduced spending and staffing levels have led to more porous defences and increased opportunity for crime, DeWalt said.
Over a third (39%) of the companies involved in the survey believe vital information is more vulnerable in the current economic climate than before. The same percentage said protecting their intellectual property from outside data thieves was their biggest concern, as cybercrime groups employ more sophisticated methods to gain access to vital company data.
The survey found that respondents worried more about the damage that leakage or loss of vital information would do to their company’s reputation than about the financial impact.
DeWalt told CBR that this mindset could be very damaging to enterprises. Asked if he felt companies did not fully understand the value of IP, he said: “Yes, it’s all about brand protection, but that is after the fact. Businesses need a much better understanding of what data they have and where it is stored.”
He added that a combination of education, technology and government intervention is they key to improving data security.
“This is the number one security concern at the moment. Governments should be more active in terms of legislation and law. For example, laws can differ from state to state in the US. Putting in the framework and ratifying legislation is not too expensive and has to be done,” he said.
The report, called Unsecured Economies: Protecting Vital Information, also pinpointed another potential impact the economic situation may have on IP security, as 42% of respondents said that displaced employees were the biggest threat to vital information.
Greg Day, security analyst at McAfee, used the example of Gary Min, an employee at science firm DuPont, to highlight the threat posed by departing employees.
“Min was headhunted by a rival company and, before he handed in his notice, he started to download a lot of sensitive data because he felt he had to give something to his new company. His crime was only discovered when he handed in his resignation,” he told CBR.
Day also warned that threat could come from current employees as well as former workers. “People may take IP to sell it to a company they are joining, but in this economic situation, it may be that someone needs to pay the mortgage and stealing data could be a way of making some money.”
