21% of Forrester survey respondents expect to increase their IT security budgets in 2009, while nearly three-quarters of those surveyed expect no cutbacks in their security spending. Only 6% of respondents anticipate having to cut their security budget 2009 despite the current economic uncertainty. Security makes up 10% of overall IT operating budgets in 2008, up from 8% in 2007. Nearly 50% of respondents report to a board/CEO or an executive committee. Security is no longer embedded within IT. Data protection is critical. More than half of respondents said that protecting corporate IP and customer data was their top priority for the next 12 months. Companies are realizing the significance of having business continuity and disaster recovery plans in place. 42% of respondents said it was very important, up from 33% from 2007.

63.1 mln US households are paying their bills online rather than writing paper checks, according to Fiserv. 13% of respondents cited online security as the top reason for not using the online bill payment service, down from 17% in the 2007 survey. Overall, online security ranked third among barriers to online bill payment adoption 2008, compared to its number-one ranking in 2007. The primary barrier (15%) in the new study was “I don’t know enough about how it works.” 31 mln households are using online banking websites to pay bills, 47.9 mln households are using biller websites and 16 mln are using both online banking and biller sites to receive and pay bills. 63.1 mln of Internet-using households pay at least one bill online in an average month, up from 61 mln in the 2007 survey. These households collectively paid 934 mln bills in a typical month, according to the survey results. Online bill payments made at both bank and biller websites rose to 42% of the total volume of household bill payments made each month, up from 39% in the 2007 survey. Online bill payment adoption has significantly grown since the 2002 survey, when only 14% reported paying their bills online.

Internet-using households pay an average of 11 bills per month. Consumers use an average of three different ways to pay bills, with online, check, automatic debit and in-person topping the list of popular bill payment methods. Online bill payments at bank and biller websites comprised 42% of total monthly payments, followed by 31% of bills paid by check. 51% of survey respondents cited the environment as a reason why they chose to view and pay bills online. Of these, 72% identified paper and clutter reduction as chief benefits, followed by tree conservation (19%) and reduction in gas consumption (16%). Saving time and gaining control over their finances were major online bill payment benefits cited by 44% of respondents.

In Q2 2008, 74% of all mail received was spam. In Q2 2008, Turkey became the country with most zombie computers (11% of the global total), followed by Brazil (8.4%) and Russia (7.4%). The USA, which in the Q1 2008 accounted for 5% of all zombies, is now in ninth place with just 4.3% of the total. Google Adwords has been at the center of one of the most notable attacks over the last quarter, PandaLabs says. This Google service had been used previously to launch phishing attacks and the trend continues. This type of attack uses social engineering to trick users into revealing confidential details (bank account numbers, passwords, etc.).

The pace of adoption of virtualized servers is incredibly rapid among organizations that are using virtualization, with 35% of servers purchased in 2007 being virtualized and 52% of those bought in 2008 expected to be so. 54% of those not using virtualization expect to do so in the next 18 months. Growth of virtualization as a strategy remains strong, rising from 46% of the base to 54%, according to IDC.

According to IDC, over 70% of respondents in markets such as Australia, China, and India indicated that solutions pertaining to the network were either important or very important. Total spending in Network services (which includes Network Consulting & Integration Services (NCIS) and Network Management (NM)) will grow from $4.7 bln in 2007 to $9.1 bln in 2012 at a compound annual growth rate of 13.7% from 2007-2012. This bids well for companies such as IBM, HP, and Dimension Data (including Datacraft), ranked by IDC as the top players (in terms of revenue) in APEJ for the calendar year 2007.

US consumers lost almost $8.5 bln over the last two years to viruses, spyware, and phishing schemes. Consumer Reports estimates that American consumers have replaced about 2.1 mln computers over the past two years because of online threats. Consumers have 1 in 6 chance of becoming a cybervictim, down from 1 in 4 in 2007. Spyware and virus infections have also declined significantly over the past few years. Consumer Reports projects that problems they cause have resulted in damages of roughly $6.5 bln over the past two years. Consumer Reports also estimates that 3.5 mln U.S. households with broadband remain unprotected by a firewall.

According to IDC the identity and access management (IAM) market in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) was valued at $89.4 mln in 2007. The market is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.1% to reach $189.3 mln by 2012.

32% of small and medium businesses in the United States and Canada have been attacked more than four times by cybercriminals in the last three years, MCAfee said. 26% of those attacked took at least a week to recover, a devastating length of time to be offline for small businesses who conduct business and sales via the Web. Recovery time in Canada was even greater, with a third (36%) taking a week or more to fully restore their systems. 44% think cybercrime is only an issue for larger organizations and believe it does not affect them. 52% of businesses believe that because they are not well-known so cybercriminals will not specifically target them. Almost half (45%) do not think they are a ‘valuable target’ for cybercriminals. 46% do not think they can be a source of profit for cybercriminals. SMBs may not be as safe from security attacks as they think. 88% of respondents believed they were ‘adequately protected,’ yet 43% of them admitted that they simply accept the default settings on their IT equipment, settings which are often not in line with their specific business needs.

According to IDC, total spending in Network services (which includes Network Consulting & Integration Services (NCIS) and Network Management) will grow from $4.7 bln in 2007 to $9.1 bln in 2012 at a compound annual growth rate of 13.7% from 2007-2012.

Malware has risen by 278% in the first half of 2008, thanks to the large number of websites comprised last month, according to ScanSafe. Trojans are the most commonly blocked malware, they increased from 4% of malware in January 2008 to 27% in June 2008.

88% of people interviewed in the US and the UK by Accenture said personal irresponsibility is the key cause of identity theft and fraud. 70% of respondents in the UK said they don’t write down their passwords, versus 49% in the US.

In 2001 19% of US employers told ePolicy institute they were monitoring time logged on and keystrokes. In 2005, it was 36%. In 2007 that number had grown to 45%.

US workers, managers, and IT staffs alike are increasingly confronted with difficulties arising from computer passwords, eMedia found. Over half of all respondents said the average employee in their firms are required to remember three to five passwords, with an additional 26% saying the number ranges from six to ten or more. 49% responded that employees are required to use passwords more than 25 times per week, with 8% stating the number of password uses exceed 100 per week. 66% stated that employees write down or store passwords in unsafe places, creating a security problem for their companies. 48% of responding IT professionals are actively seeking a reliable password management solution. While 79% of those taking the survey report that security is their number one password management concern, 39% also reported Lost Employee Productivity or Frustration as an issue. In addition, 31% said that helpdesk hours are either lost or spent in frustration by support personnel.

66% of consumers surveyed by JupiterResearch prefer online stores that offer multiple payment mechanisms. 62% of purchasers feel more secure when they do not have to enter credit card information online, even at merchants’ sites that they trust. 61% of online shoppers choose sites that offer both credit and debit card payment options. 55% of consumers think about payment methods they will use before they click on the checkout button. 48% of all online adult shoppers prefer the convenience of alternative payment methods. One third of online shoppers want to avoid filling out name, address and credit card details. One in eight consumers thinks about how he or she will pay even before deciding what to buy.

Russia now occupies number one spot on Sophos malware ranking list with 27.4% of malware, slightly ahead of China on 27%. Both leave the US trailing in third with 10.1%, Brazil on 6.6%, and the UK with 5.32%.

44% of low-income Americans say they strongly agree that they don’t like sending personal information or credit card numbers over the internet, according to Pew Internet. 22% of Americans with household incomes below $25,000 annually, strongly agree that online shopping is convenient. For upper income Americans - household where the annual income exceeds $100,000 - 25% feel strongly in their concerns about sending personal information over the internet, 36% say they find online shopping convenient.

63% of Americans admit to using the same password or a variation of it for all or most of their online accounts. 6.7% use a variation of a familiar password for most of their online accounts. 22.9% use the same password for most of their online accounts. 3.5% use the same password for all their of my online accounts, Protecteer survey found.

AV Test reported that it saw 5.49 mln unique samples of malicious software in 2007, 5x more than the 972,606 it saw in 2006.

More than 50% of the companies surveyed said they do not allow employees to access typical Web 2.0 services from work –such as social networking sites, Internet video sites (YouTube) or virtual worlds (Second Life) – because they view such services a waste of the employee’s and the company’s time, according to IDC.

61% of adult Americans said they were very or extremely concerned about the privacy of personal information when buying online, an increase from 47% in 2006, University of Southern California’s Center for the Digital Future says. Concerns about credit card security have largely stabilized, with 57% very or extremely concerned in 2007. It was 53% in 2006. As of 2007, 67% of adult Internet users shop online, compared with just half a year earlier. Most spend $100 or less a month, and two-thirds of online shoppers have reduced buying at brick-and-mortar stores. Online parents are more likely than ever to withhold Internet use as punishment - 62% in 2007, compared with 47% a year earlier and 32% in 2000.

Small and medium businesses (SMBs, or companies with up to 999 employees) in the United Kingdom spent $12 bln on IT services in 2007, up some 8% over 2006. Up to 29% of the over $40 bln in IT and telecom spending by UK SMBs went towards IT services. In terms of spending, software development and integration, day-to-day IT management and process management are dominant categories for SMBs in the UK. As demand for third-party services continues to broaden, expenditures for services in other IT categories are increasing. Total SMB spending for managed security services reached $42 mln in 2007 and storage services climbed to a substantial $388 mln, up some 20% over in 2007.

faceTime says 19% of threats were reported on the AOL Instant Messenger network, 45% on MSN Messenger, 20% on Yahoo! Instant Messenger and 15% on all other IM networks including Jabber-based IM private networks. Attacks on these private networks have more than doubled in share since 2003, rising from seven% of all IM attacks to 15% in 2007. In 2007 researchers saw a shift in the non-IM vectors used to distribute viruses, malware and spyware. Most notable is the rise in IRC-distributed attacks: in 2006, IRC accounted for 58% of attacks, rising to 72% by year-end 2007.

Phishing attacks in the United States soared in 2007 as $3.2 bln was lost to these attacks, according to Gartner. 3.6 mln adults lost money in phishing attacks in the 12 months ending in August 2007, as compared with the 2.3 mln who did so the year before. Of consumers who received phishing e-mails in 2007, 3.3% say they lost money because of the attack, compared with 2.3% who lost money in 2006, and 2.9% who did so in 2005. The average dollar loss per incident declined to $886 from $1,244 lost on average in 2006 (with a median loss of $200 in 2007), but because there were more victims, $3.2 bln was lost to phishing in 2007, according to surveyed consumers. Some 1.6 mln adults recovered about 64% of their losses in 2007, up from the 54% that 1.5 mln adults recovered in 2006.

Chinese video surveillance camera markets earned revenues of $213.8 mln in 2006 and estimates this to reach $484.3 mln in 2013, Frost & Sullivan reports.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports a 50% increase in the number of kids aged 10 to 17 who said they were harassed online - from 6% in 2000 to 9% in 2005.