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News Release from: Information Assurance Advisory Council | Subject: IAAC 5th Annual Symposium
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 19 October 2004
IAAC 5th Annual Symposium
IAAC 5th Annual Symposium: "We Need To Think Of Online Crime In Visible Terms - Broken Windows And Ransacked Offices - If We Are To Beat It" says UK Government's Chief Scientific Adviser.
Business and government at all levels are falling far short of protecting cyberspace from ever more proficient and sophisticated online criminals - and the vast majority of the community is far too relaxed about the dangers Those will be the key messages delivered by some of the world's leading authorities on Internet crime and security at the 5th Annual Symposium of the Information Assurance Advisory Council, hosted by Ernst and Young, on Thursday, October 14, 2004
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 13 Jun 2003 at 8.00am (UK)
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Professor Sir David King, the UK Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, will be a keynote speaker.
Information assurance is the protection of personal and corporate information, primarily on the Internet and in electronic communication.
"Cyber crime is invisible, and so are the opportunities we present for it to be carried out - we need to urge government, business and individuals to think of Internet crime in visible terms.
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If we all do that then a great number of us will realise that we leave keys in locks, safe doors wide open, confidential information in plain view and expose ourselves to theft and fraud virtually every minute of every day," said Maarten Botterman, CEO of the IAAC.
Government bodies involved with IAAC include the DTI, the Cabinet Office and the Bank of England, with business members such as Microsoft, Symantec and HP, as well as other FTSE 100 companies.
They, and representatives of many more public sector bodies and blue chip businesses, will gather to hear updates and the views of keynote speakers such as Sir David King, John Lyons of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit and a number of other senior business and security figures, including Stuart Okin, Chief Security Officer of Microsoft UK.
"There is a growing and mysterious underworld of Internet criminal activity and security breach - a level that would horrify us were it visible not virtual crime: imagine arriving at work to be greeted day in, day out, by broken windows and missing files, documents and money," said Mr Botterman.
"According to the most recent research conducted by the DTI's Industry Information Security Breaches Survey, around 75% of all businesses have suffered a security breach involving their information, and this rises to 94% for large businesses - organisations with more than 1,000 employees.
"There is a vast cost associated with every breach: each incident takes between two and 20 man-days to clear up, typically costing between £1,000 and £10,000.
Again, it is largely invisible because there are no splintered doors, broken windows or ransacked offices to clear up.
"But individuals - whether operating a PC at home for personal reasons, or in the office for business reasons - are also a major influence.
Many people use a single username, ID and password for all their programmes or internet access - that's the equivalent of having one key for every single lock in one's life: house, car, garage, shed, safe, office or business.
"This year's symposium intends to send out a clear call for action to make information assurance a reality," said Mr Botterman.
"It will not deliver the ultimate solution, but it will be a significant step towards prodding business and government closer to where they should each be.
"We all need to keep up with the moving targets of risk: threats, perpetrators and technology, as well as countermeasures.
The immediate priority is to make the actors aware of the risks and the ways of dealing with them, able to act responsibly and to ensure that responsibility is assumed.".
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