The IGN Data Hub - April 10, 2002

10 April 2002
US Businesses Don't Report Hacker Attacks

According to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), a vast majority of online businesses suffer from hacker attacks, yet don't report them to law enforcement officials.

The FBI survey found that fully 90 percent of businesses and government agencies were hacked in the past year, but only a third of the victimized companies reported the invasions. Of those companies, 80 percent indicated they suffered financial losses as a direct result of the attacks. A little more than half of those could quantify the harm done as a result.

As reported by Newsbytes, companies that could quantify the damages lost approximately US$455 million, up $125 million from the year before. Thirty-nine percent of hacked companies reported 10 or more disturbances in one year alone. Twenty-five percent indicate they were hacked or compromised two to five times in the last year.

"There is much more illegal and unauthorized activity going on in cyberspace than corporations admit to their clients, stockholders and business partners or report to law enforcement," said Patrice Rapalus, director of the Computer Security Institute, the group that conducted the survey with the FBI.

Online Games Attract Connected Spaniards

NetValue's recently released report outlining the popularity of online games amongst various European countries points to Spain as having the most dedicated players.

Video game information sites as well as sites that offer game play are visited by 22.5 percent of the Spanish online population. This percentage is the highest among the European countries observed, with France coming in second at 21.5 percent, followed by the UK at 19.3 percent, Denmark at 18.9 percent, Germany at 13.7 percent and Italy trailing at 10.4 percent.

Factors contributing to Spain's dominance in online games is the generally younger Internet audience in Spain and availability of faster connection speeds. Italy also has a proportionately younger Internet audience, but cultural quality of content in addition to slower connections contribute to their smaller market share in the online games category.

Korean Online Crime Statistics Escalate

A study by Korea's National Police Agency (NPA) indicates that online crimes have surged in the past year.

In this year's first quarter, NPA statistics reveal an increase in cyber-crimes of more than 300 percent--from 4,692 cases in 2001 to 14,554 cases reported this year. Of that total, fraud from online games and online sales witnessed a quadrupling of cases reported from 1,737 in 2001 to 7,015 this year.

An NPA official noted, "Considering that the online crime growth rate in the metropolitan area, including Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, exceeded the national average, cyber-crimes appear to be concentrated in regions with a good information communication infrastructure."

Sex Searches Beat out by Searches for Useful Information

Penn State University has released a report containing its findings after evaluating searches conducted on the Excite Internet search engine between 1997 and the end of 2001.

The report indicates that in 1997, one in six of the searches conducted on Excite's search engine were about sex, but by 2001 that ratio decreased to one in. Meanwhile, the number of searches relating to commerce and travel rose with the 80 percent increase in commercial content available to boost those searches.

Another important find of the study was that fewer search engine users examine more than one page of results from their searches. In 1997, fewer than 30 percent of Excites searchers only looked at one page of the results, but by 2001, more than 50 percent wouldn't go beyond the first page of results and 70 percent of their users don't look past the second page of results.

Singapore Ranks First in SMS Messages Sent

Mobile Commerce World reported on a study conducted by the Cambridge University Business School evaluating the world's SMS (Short Message Service) usage.

Nearly 52 percent of mobile phone users in Singapore use SMS more than once a day, as compared to the global average of 23 percent.

Respondents to the survey from China reveal that 35 percent anticipate using SMS more this year.