US banks a major target for hack attacks

NEWS More than a quarter of US banks were targeted by hackers last year according to a survey. The survey, by research firm Evans Data found that 27 per cent of US and Canadian financial institutions suffered a hack attempt during 2001 whereas the figure for non-financial companies was 12 per cent. Only 18 per cent of healthcare and data communications institutions suffered from security breaches. The breaches reported consisted of computer viruses, hackings, human errors and internal software glitches. The survey did not assess losses caused by database security breaches. The survey consisted of 750 database developers in Canada and the US across all industries.