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Cybercrime scares Americans

Self-serving survey claims

Two thirds of Americans - that must be, oh, around 180 million people - feel threatened, or are concerned, by cybercrime.

And more than 60 per cent reckon that Internet consumers are not protected enough from cybercrime, and around the same number say they are less likely to do business on the Internet as a result of cybercrime.

Boy, that means there must be more American cybercrime scaredy cats than there are Americans actually connected to the Internet.

This "sobering" survey, culled from the responses of 1000 people, is produced by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) and EDS.

From the survey, it looks like the representative sample are more concerned with getting their credit cards ripped off than with crackers, cyberterrorists, virus writers and the like.

The findings were released at a "high-level meeting of industry and government hosted by ITAA at EDS' regional office here (Herndon, VA) to discuss cyber crime fighting".

In a statement, Harris Miller, ITAA President, said: "The New Economy cannot operate like the Wild West, and ITAA has a multi-faceted campaign to better protect data and users from security threats."

EDS Chairman Dick Brown told reporters at a news conference yesterday: "EDS takes the issue of cybersecurity very seriously, which is why we have pledged to take a leadership role in developing protections for Internet and computer users from illegal online behaviour."

Some of you with long memories may recall a minor contretemps many years ago when EDS was caught ordering American employees to lie to British immigration officials about the purpose of their visits to the UK.

As we say, it was a long time ago. But doesn't EDS have better things to do than assume leadership positions for itself in an ethical quagmire like cybersecurity? ®

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