Cybercriminals are dropping the focus on personal information to spend more time swiping corporate intellectual capital, according to a report by McAfee and Science Applications International Corp.
The upshot: It’s far more profitable for cybercrooks to steal intellectual capital from big name corporations. McAfee and SAIC surveyed 1,000 senior IT execs around the world.
Perhaps the most takeaway from the survey is that companies are evaluating countries on how safe it is to store intellectual property there. For instance, China, Russia and Pakistan are viewed as the worst places to store data. Companies aren’t conducted the risk assessments needed to sort out perception and reality.
Among the notable data points (statement, report):
- A quarter of companies have slowed a merger or product launch because of a data breach or a threat of one.
- Only half of the companies hit by a data breach moved to protect systems from future security problems.
- Half of companies are pondering storing data outside of their home countries.
- Companies in China, Japan, U.K. and U.S. spend more than $1 million a day on IT. In the U.S., China and India companies spend $1 million a week on securing sensitive information.
- 62 percent of companies said security multiple devices is a challenge.
