Escalating revenue losses from cyber crimes and understaffed network security teams have Indian companies more concerned about cyber attacks than terrorism.

In the article, “Cyber attacks worry firms more than terrorism,” the “2010 State of Enterprise Security Study” conducted by Symantec Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd. found that 42% of companies representing industries such as telecom, hospitality, manufacturing, retail and technology perceive cyber attacks as the biggest threat to their enterprises.

One reason cited was the lack of adequate network security. Over the past year, 66% of companies surveyed said they had experienced cyber intrusions while 51% reported repeated attacks. The study also pointed out that deployment of enterprise security has turned into a difficult task for many organizations. Said Vishal Dhupar, managing director at Symantec:

“Enterprise security is understaffed and the most affected areas in organizations are network security, web security and data-loss prevention. To tackle the issue, companies need to secure their messaging and web environments and defending critical internal servers. They should also have the ability to back up and recover data and respond to threats rapidly.

With the rise in malicious attacks targeting sectors that can have a significant impact on India’s economy, one has to wonder if cyber attacks and terrorism weren’t one in the same. As I mentioned in a recent blog, “Are we in a cyberwar or not?” cyber threats continue to have a growing impact on our nation’s economy and global competitiveness. Although U.S. Cyber Czar, Howard Schmidt, may not think we are engaged in cyber warfare, the impacts from targeted attacks are being felt everywhere, and are top IT concerns for many organizations and nations around the world.