Cyberattacks up 50 percent in 2011

An annual study on internet crime, conducted by Telus Corp. and the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, indicated that publicly traded Canadian companies experienced 50 percent more cyberattacks in 2011 than in the previous year. On average, public companies were hacked 18 times, compared with a dozen times in 2010. Over the longer term, breaches at public companies have increased 600 percent since 2008.

The news was better for private business and government, where cyberattacks declined to an average of 7.6 in 2011, compared to 14.6 breaches in 2010.

The study's authors said that the most surprising finding was that 42 percent of hacker intrusions into government computers came from inside the organizations.

Initiated in 2008, the study surveys 600 Canadian IT professionals across government, public and private industry.