There were some interesting statistics in a Rediff India Abroad article today, "It takes 14 secs to crack your password." Several of them good justification for business leaders to invest in more information security and privacy education for their personnel, and to invest in more information security resources and technologies.
Some of the stats in the article:
- "Over 60,000 mobile phones, 5,838 pocket PCs and 4,973 laptops were left in licensed taxicabs in London last year."
- "Up to one in 10 laptops will be stolen during their lifetime." See www.juststolen.net for more info.
- "A Symantec report suggests that an ordinary laptop holds content valued at $972,000, and that some could store as much as $8.8 million in commercially-sensitive data and intellectual property."
- "A Gartner study warns that the Windows password can be cracked in as little as 14 seconds. "
- "With less than $100, anyone can purchase password-recovery tools on the Internet."
- "The Symantec research also reveals that only 42 per cent of companies automatically back up employees’ e-mails"
- "Peter Larsson, CEO of Pointsec Mobile Technologies, says they were able to read seven out of 10 hard-drives bought over the Internet at auctions such as eBay, for less than the cost of a McDonald’s meal, all of which had "supposedly" been "wiped-clean" or "re-formatted"."
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