The Top 10 Types of e-Security Attacks: (2004 categories updated)

1. Virus (2003: 85%, 2004: 78%)
2. Insider Abuse of Network Access (2003: 78%, 2004: 59%)
3. Laptop Theft (2003: 65%, 2004: 49%)
4. Breaking into the System or Unauthorized Access (2003: 40%, 2004: 39%)
5. Denial of Service (2003: 40%, 2004: 17%)
6. Wrongful Access by Insiders (2003: 38%) (employees abusing their rights to the system)
7. Theft of Proprietary Information (2003: 20%, 2004: 10%) (stealing information that belongs to someone else)
8. Telecommunications Fraud--telephone hackers (2003: 9%, 2004: 5%)
9. Sabotage--to damage something on purpose (2003: 8%, 2004: less than 5%)

Source: 2003 and 2004 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey, Computer Security Institute

*Denial of Service: An attack that is designed to "keep out" the people who use the system as part of the work they do every day. It can be caused by destroying the data, changing it in some way, taking down the system, or by overloading the system's servers in such a way that the people who have permission to use it can no longer use it. "Denial of Service" attacks normally come from outside the organization using telecommunications or it could be the work of a very unhappy employee.

Definition paraphrased from The ITsecurity.com Dictionary+ of Information Security http://www.itsecurity.com/dictionary/dictionary.htm

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