ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 6, 1996 TAG: 9605060096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune WASHINGTON
More and more intruders are breaking into the nation's computer systems, a disturbing trend to computer industry officials hoping to build large new markets on the Internet.
More than 40 percent of corporate, university and government sites reported at least one computer break-in within the last 12 months, in a new survey by the FBI and private security experts released Sunday.
The attacks ranged from changing data in computer files to wholesale attempts to steal passwords or prevent legitimate users from gaining access to the systems.
While more than half the organizations surveyed reported some attacks came from employees or other insiders, more than a third said they had been attacked from the outside, via the Internet.
Significant growth in such crime could put the brakes on the explosive growth of Internet commerce. Business could be chilled if consumers or businesses felt vulnerable to theft of information, services or money.
The survey clearly indicates that computer crime is moving from ``inside jobs,'' where the keys to the electronic locks are readily available, to outside attacks.
More than 75 percent of those responding said they feared attacks from independent hackers and ``information brokers.'' Nearly 60 percent said they consider their domestic competitors just as likely to try to break into their computers.
``What this shows is that the ante has been upped ...'' said Richard Power, senior analyst of the Computer Security Institute in San Francisco, which conducted the survey at 428 corporate, university and government sites. ``As all manner of commerce moves into cyberspace, all manner of crime is moving there as well. It's no longer just vandalism.''
Power's organization made the survey at the request of the FBI, using questions supplied by the agency. The FBI has stepped up its investigation of computer crime in the past year, assembling a special group in San Francisco to combat it.
FBI Director Louis Freeh testified before Congress earlier this year about what he considers the growing danger to U.S. businesses from information spies, including ones in the employ of foreign governments or competitors.
The new study produced renewed calls by security experts and civil libertarians for the federal government to ease its restrictions on the use of technology to encrypt the storage and transmission of computer data.
The strongest such technology would make it nearly impossible for an unauthorized person to read or misuse data - yet it is not widely deployed because the U.S. government won't allow its export. Companies, therefore, don't include it with many of their products.
``The number one reason why computer crime happens is because we have a totally backwards encryption policy in this country,'' said Daniel Weitzner of the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington.
The report doesn't mean, however, that computer users everywhere should panic.
Computer security experts note that individual personal computers, especially at home, are far less likely to be attacked than larger systems used by corporations and government agencies.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 linesby CNB