Security survey: Two-thirds of Asian firms hit

The study, conducted by the National ICT Security and Emergency Response Center (NISER), a goverment-backed cyber security organization, indicated that the level of awareness of the need for a thorough process to deter hackers and crackers was very low compared to the US.

"Such awareness in the US is in the 90 percent range or higher in companies polled...In Malaysia, I would say we are barely in the 60 percent mark," NICER's Panel of Experts (PoE) chairman Dr Mohamed Awang Lah said.

The survey, which is NICER's first since its formation last April, covered 205 public and private sector entities in the finance, retail, manufacturing, services and telecommunications sectors.

Other key findings indicated that 47 percent of respondents suffered some form of virus attack in 2000. About 113 of the organizations polled quantified losses attributed to these breaches at around RM239,000 (US$62,886) each. --Sreejit Pillai, Special to ZDNet News