[ISN] Surprising percentage of public fears cyberattacks

From: InfoSec News (isnat_private)
Date: Wed Sep 03 2003 - 02:22:20 PDT

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    http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0901/cov-pew2-09-01-03.asp
    
    By Judi Hasson 
    Sept. 1, 2003 
    
    About half of Americans fear terrorists will launch cyberattacks on
    the large networks that operate the banking, electrical transportation
    and water systems, disrupting everyday life and possibly crippling
    economic activity, according to a survey conducted by Federal Computer
    Week and the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
    
    Some 49 percent of those surveyed said they were afraid of
    cyberassaults on key parts of the U.S. economy. A significant gender
    gap showed up in the data, as women were more likely to express fear.  
    People in the Midwest were the most concerned about cyberterrorism.
    
    According to experts, Americans tend to discount the devastating
    effects a computer virus or attack can have on the financial,
    transportation and health industries. But the high percentage of
    Americans who fear an attack - coupled with the fact the poll was
    taken before the Blaster worm infected millions of computers worldwide
    and prior to the electrical blackout in the Northeast and Canada -
    indicate that the public's awareness of the issue, and their fear, has
    increased.
    
    Alan Paller, a leading expert on information security and research 
    director for the SANS Institute, a training and education 
    organization, said the high percentage of Americans worried about 
    cyberattacks surprised him, but it indicates that the federal 
    government has done a good job of making people aware of the issue.
    
    "At that high level, it also helps explain why Microsoft [Corp.] is 
    making a huge policy change in how it handles vulnerabilities and that 
    most other vendors will be forced to follow," he wrote in an e-mail to 
    FCW. "Instead of expecting every school child and all users to do 
    their own security maintenance, the vendors are being forced - kicking 
    and screaming - into taking responsibility for fixing, automatically 
    without user knowledge or involvement, every security vulnerability 
    that could be used in attacks on the infrastructure."
    
    Interviewed after the blackout that hit New York and other major urban 
    areas, Donna Day, a resident of Wagner, S.C., said she is still 
    concerned that hackers can break into any computer network. "I'm not 
    as worried about them breaking into banks as much as [I'm worried they 
    may do] something like the blackout," Day, 49, said. "If they could 
    get into a computer and cause something like that, it would shut down 
    a whole city."
    
    Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of 
    America, said he's not surprised by the poll results. "People are very 
    cognizant and concerned about the risks to their information and their 
    finances from cybersecurity threats," he said. "They realize their 
    money can be stolen in ways other than robbing a bank."
    
    Computer security expert Peter Neumann, a scientist with the research 
    firm SRI International, said it's important that the public is 
    becoming aware of how serious the threat can be. "Until now, the 
    standard answer you get is, 'We've never had the Pearl Harbor of 
    cybersecurity, so why worry,' " he said. "We tend not to be on our 
    toes. And we need to be on our toes."
     
     
    
    
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