Posted: 09th May, 2003 By: MarkJ
The Yankee Group has reported that businesses using a broadband xDSL connection are five times more vulnerable to a security breach than those that use a dial-up:
The research company has calculated that security breaches will cost UK firms almost £2bn this year, and it believes that a significant proportion of that cost will be due to broadband.
"For those using DSL, the risk of being among those affected is much higher than among dialup users. We estimate that DSL users are at five times greater risk of being affected by a security attack," Yankee claimed. "'Always On', in other words, means 'Always Vulnerable'," the research group added.
DSL is a much greater security risk because it allows a user to be constantly connected to the Web. While this is ideal for applications such as email and instant messenger, the downside is that it means more exposure to malicious hackers.ZDNet notes that the report was commissioned by UK ISP Star Internet.