Symantec: three-quarters of firms suffer cyber attacks

The worldwide poll suggests that cyber attacks are at the forefront of end users' minds

75 per cent of firms have suffered a cyber attack in the past year

Three-quarters of businesses experienced a cyber attack in the past 12 months, according to Symantec's 2010 State of Enterprise Security report.

Thirty-six per cent of respondents to the study, which featured contributions by 2,100 IT managers from 27 countries, rated the attacks they suffered as “highly effective”.

Additionally, 29 per cent of those polled said they felt that the frequency of cyber attacks had increased over the past year.

To help tackle the problem, 84 per cent said that better IT security management would be an “absolutely important” priority for 2010.

The report also highlighted just how seriously end users take cyber risk: they ranked it as their top concern more than natural disasters, terrorism, and traditional crime combined.