Cyber breaches hit 90% of U.S. firms.

• Position: CYBERSECURITY - Statistical data

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

According to survey results released in June 2011, 90% of U.S. businesses had experienced at least one cybersecurity breach during the 12 months previous to the survey of 583 U.S. IT professionals conducted by the Ponemon Institute. More than half (59%) experienced two or more breaches during the same time period.

The Juniper Network-sponsored survey also found that those breaches cost 41% of businesses at least $500,000 to address. Worse, such breaches appear to be increasing, with 43% of respondents indicating a significant increase in the frequency of cyber attacks over the 12 months studied. Seventy-seven percent said the attacks have become more severe or difficult to detect or contain.

Businesses of every type and size are vulnerable, the survey shows. The most severe consequences of any breach are information theft and business disruption, according to 59% of survey respondents. More than one-third (34%) of respondents who suffered multiple breaches said they have low confidence in the ability of their organization's IT department to prevent a network security breach.

"Our survey research provides evidence that many organizations are ill-equipped to prevent cyber attacks against networks and enterprise systems," said Larry Ponemon, chairman and founder of the Ponemon...