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: While a lot has been written about the ex-cellent results of two of our big information technology (IT) companies in the first quarter of 2004, there is relative silence on the extent of record-breaking damages caused during the same period in terms of digital attacks. These comprise the spread of worms and viruses, number of phising incidents, unleashing of distributed denial of service attacks (DDOS), circulation of spam and overt digital attacks. The figures are mind boggling and serve as a reminder for the ongoing efforts to raise awareness and need for cyber security, both for the corporate world and home users. The best statistics are available from the British firm mi2g, which has the largest digital risk database today. The advantage of the statistics from mi2g is that it comes to its conclusion on damage extent and loss estimation after a comprehensive analysis of many factors like help desk support costs, overtime payments, contingency outsourcing, loss of business, band- width clogging, productivity erosion, management time reallocation, cost of recovery, software upgrades, Intell-ectual Property Rights violations, customer and supplier liabilities and also the share price decline as a result of such attacks. This is unlike many other such intelligence companies which generally consider the cost of recovery and patch upgrade to provide figures.
What is alarming about such results is that damages from all attacks in the first quarter of 2004 have surpassed those for the whole of 2003. Some new trends have been witnessed in attack patterns and its gradual sophistication and blending moves. While Microsoft was able to resist MyDoom’s DDoS attacks, others like SCO and Recording Industry Associ-ation of America (RIAA) have suffered disruptions for weeks. These disruptions were facilitated by millions of zombie computers from across the globe with Windows operating system, which were previously attacked with some worms.
Likewise, some of the worst worms and their blends visited computers across the globe during the same period. Of worthy mention are the Netsky and Bagle worms which att-acked many computers across Indian networks too. Many of the users have received emails saying that the sender had received a mail with virus attachment. At the same time, spam messages were carrying hidden viruses and Trojans. Strangely, January 26 has become a point day for cyber attacks. This year, the My Doom worm was unleashed with a deadly payload while last year, on the same date, the Slammer worm created...
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