Study: Data Theft And Other Cybercrime Could Cost Businesses Over $1 Trillion

Important points from the linked article:

1. Malware increased by 400 percent during 2008.
2. 80 percent of 800 companies believed the malware was for financial purposes.
3. 42 percent of companies believe laid-off employees posed the greatest risk to their data.

"This was a very insidious type of malware that was designed either to steal your data, steal your identity, steal your money, and in many cases the scale as well as the sophistication was very alarming," said McAfee CEO David DeWalt at the World Economic Forum.

The worsening economy coupled with laid-off employees (possibly disgruntled) is the scariest bit of news for CIOs. Not only do you have shrinking budgets, but now you have to worry if Joe Blow planted malware, stole source code, or made off with copies of sensitive data.

USB flash drives currently hold up to 64GB with 128GB coming by 2010. There could be a lot of pilfered data (in someone's pocket or purse) walking out the door of your business. How would you know?