Survey reveals ecommerce fears

Data theft, the interception of ecommerce transactions and denial of service(DoS) attacks are the principal risks that give ecommerce managers sleepless nights, according to recent research.

The fears were revealed in a study by analysts Datamonitor of the security risks associated with doing business on the web.

Surprisingly, virus attacks and network intrusion are thought to be less of a risk, despite the fact that these forms of internet attack have cost users far more to date than ecommerce fraud and DoS attacks.

Datamonitor e-security analyst Ian Williams said that the Melissa bug had cost business $1bn, and that estimates of the financial damage inflicted by the Love Bug range from $3bn to $5bn.

He added that the fears expressed in the survey, which were drawn from interviews with 300 IT and network managers, showed that users were becoming increasingly concerned about the potential effect on a company's share price following a security breach.

The findings form part of a larger study by Datamonitor, published this week, which found that although security breaches cause more than $15bn worth of damage worldwide every year, total investment on network security is only half this amount.