April 2006

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Computer Crime

9 of 10 organizations are victims

The FBI reports that 9 out of 10 organizations in this country are victims of some sort of computer security incident, and one-fifth are hit more than 20 times a year.

Viruses (83.7 percent) and spyware (79.5 percent) headed the list for types of attacks. More than one in five organizations said they experienced port scans and network or data sabotage.

More than 64 percent of the respondents incurred a loss. Viruses and worms cost the most, accounting for $12 million of the $32 million in total losses.

FBI statistics show that cyber crimes originated in 36 different countries. The U.S., with 26.1 percent, and China, with 23.9 percent, were the source of more than half of the intrusion attempts. In addition, 44 percent reported intrusions from within their own organizations.

Only 9 percent of the organizations who found they were victims of cyber crime reported incidents to law enforcement. Of those that did, 91 percent were satisfied with law enforcement’s response.

Workplace Injuries

Lost work days drop by
4.3 percent

The number of injuries requiring workers to miss a day or more of work fell by 4.3 percent to 1.3 million in 2004, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rate of these injuries also fell, as did median days away from work, which dropped by one day to seven days, according to the bureau.

Sprains and strains accounted for more than 40 percent of the injuries and illnesses that forced workers to take days off. Three occupations – laborers, truck drivers and nursing aides – accounted for 20 percent of all sprains and strains.

Retirement Planning

U.S. workers save more than workers in other developed countries

U.S. workers may be doing a better job of preparing for retirement than workers in many other developed countries, according to an article in the National Underwriter. Researchers at AXA Equitable, New York, have published figures supporting that conclusion in a study based on a survey of 6,900 retirees and workers aged 25 and older in 11 developed markets.

If the responses are to be believed, U.S. workers who are saving may be saving more for retirement each month than workers from the other 10 markets included in the survey – Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom. The U.S. participants who are saving are saving an average of $1,253 per month. That average is more than twice the average for Hong Kong, the market with the second-highest average retirement saving level.

Top Verdicts

Awards fall in 2005, along with punitive damages

The National Law Journal (NLJ) reported that the total amount awarded by juries last year in the nation’s largest cases declined for the third consecutive year.

Based on analysis of the VerdictSearch Top 100, NLJ reveals that juries awarded just $8.2 billion in compensatory and punitive damages in these cases last year, the lowest total since the newspaper began tracking these verdicts in 2001 and a decline of 28 percent from last year’s total.

Punitive damages also continued to decline significantly, in part due to caps that have now been implemented in more than half of the nation’s states.

The total for 2005 contrasted sharply with the $41.4 billion in total verdicts, adjusted for inflation, reported for 2002, the peak total for the past five years.

Punitive awards continued to decrease at a much faster rate than compensatory awards – which, by comparison, have remained relatively constant. In 2005, punitive damages totaled just $3.5 billion, down from the five-year period’s high of $36.0 billion in 2002.

Auto Theft

Although trends decline nationwide and statewide – Cleveland's numbers increase by 19 percent

Car thefts in Cleveland climbed 19 percent in 2005, at a time when the nationwide and statewide trends were going the other way. Nationally, the FBI figures showed a decrease of almost two percent.

In 2004, Cleveland saw 5,808 auto thefts, or one theft for each 53 cars registered in Cleveland that year. In 2005, there were 6,936 auto thefts in Cleveland.