Dr. Dobbs on Security Best Practices

"As of 2009 the value of information is approaching the value of gold, platinum, oil and other expensive commodities. In fact as the global recession expands, the value of information is rising faster than the value of natural products such as metals or oil. As the value of information goes up, it is attracting more sophisticated kinds of thievery. In the past hacking and viruses were often individual efforts, sometimes carried out by students and even by high-school students sometimes just for the thrill of accomplishing the act.

"However in today's world theft of valuable information has migrated to organized crime, terrorist groups, and even to hostile foreign governments. Not only that but denial of service attacks and `search bots` that can take over computers are powerful and sophisticated enough to shut down corporate data centers and interfere with government operations. This situation is going to get worse as the global economy declines..."

Excellent article at ddj.com...