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List:       isn
Subject:    [ISN] Computer security: the next big thing?
From:       mea culpa <jericho () dimensional ! com>
Date:       1998-05-21 0:07:58
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Forwarded From: Kjell Wooding <kwooding@codetalker.com>


http://www.forbes.com/asp/redir.asp?/tool/html/98/may/0520/side1.htm

Computer security: the next big thing? 

By Om Malik 

Hackers, corporate spies, curious teenagers and disgruntled
employees--these are the new villains for corporate America. They somehow
manage to find their way into a company's computer system, and create havoc
either destroying or altering files and snooping around in
confidential records. (Click here for more on corporate spies.) 

A 1997 report on computer crime and security conducted by the Computer
Security Institute (CSI) reveals that 75% of the 563 companies, government
agencies and universities surveyed reported financial losses because of
security breaches. According to security software industry sources, in 1997
cybercriminals caused $5 billion worth of damage. 

The reason is obvious--more computers than ever are connected to
networks--internal, external and the Internet--and the number of those
connections is going to increase sharply, predicts Nicole Schmidt, an
analyst at CIBC Oppenheimer. 

With so many machines connected to each other, the chances of break-ins
will be higher. 

On the Internet alone, the number of connections will jump to 268 million
in 2001 from 82 million in 1997, according to San Jose, Calif.-based market
research firm Dataquest. And Framingham, Mass.-based market research group,
International Data Corp. (IDC) sees 133 million users connected to
corporate intranets by the year 2001. 

With so many machines connected to each other, the chances of break-ins
will be higher. Not only from outsiders, but from insiders, as well. The
losses are likely to mount if companies and government organizations do not
take preventive measures right away, says John Becker, president and chief
executive officer of Axent Technologies (AXNT), a Rockville, Md.-based
maker of computer security software. 

No wonder the spending on computer security software is going to balloon to
$13 billion in 2001 from $6.3 billion in 1997, estimates research firm
Dataquest. 

"We are bullish on the long-term fundamentals of the security software
industry," says Schmidt. (See "Axent: digital bodyguards.") So far she has
not been wrong. The CIBC Security Index is up 459% over the past three
years, versus the S&P 500, which is up a mere 103% during the same period.
And she predicts that as more and more venture-backed security software
companies go public, interest in their stocks will increase.


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