Last year in Hong Kong, approximately 32 percent of all companies suffered from some form of computer attack -- virus, hacking, denial of service and information theft -- according to the Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre.

Despite being high, the figure does give some cause for encouragement as it is down from 54 percent in 2002.

David Sykes, Senior Director, Symantec Enterprise Sales, Asia Pacific, says there is a lot more awareness about online security issues, but the greatest risk continues to be users themselves.

"Users still don't believe that they could lose their job or their company could be damaged through a security breach," he says. "So everything starts on the company's security policy. If you don't have a policy then you are wasting your money on technology, because it won't do you any good as long as people continue to give passwords over the phone, or open attachments from people they don't know."

Although he views much of the coverage on computer attacks in the media as hype, he welcomes the effect that they have had on helping raise awareness of the problem. It has also kept the anti-virus market growing at about 20-22 percent per quarter, and secured Symantec a 70 percent market share of the consumer security market.

Expanding business

When Symantec set up in Hong Kong in 1995, it distributed a wide range of software products, from WinFax to ACT Database. "The only thing we really do now is security, he says. 'So we have moved from a company that was quite broad in its product focus to one that is now the number-one Internet security company in the world.

During that process, the company has also diversified its client base from predominantly home users, to corporate consumers. Today, over half of Symantec's global revenues come from corporate clients, and the segment has become the focus of the company's growth strategy which seems to be paying off.

Since 1999, Symantec's fiscal revenues have more than doubled, from US$632 million to US$1.4 billion last year. With its recently released Internet security packages, as opposed to standalone products, Mr Sykes expects sales to remain brisk.

"Separate protection products, from firewalls to anti-virus and intrusion software are commonly used now, but a big challenge is to get all of those integrated into a single, seamless suite," he says. "This is a natural evolution that has taken place with almost every popular software program."

Greater awareness

Some people have argued that harsher punishment should be meted out to offenders who unleash viruses, worms and even spam, but Mr Sykes says this -- if it were possible -- would do little to curb the problem.

"I am quite certain that a lot of people who write these viruses and worms particularly the ones that are not malicious, but the ones that clog up the Internet probably don't realise that those same worms are clogging up the pipes in a hospital or the calls of the emergency services, he says.

Even with harsher penalties, catching the offenders is extremely difficult as governments efforts to hunt down and prosecute spammers is proving. There have been examples where governments have said they are going to get a spammer and put him in jail, only to trace the source back to one of their own servers which they had left open.

"It is a little naive to think you can do this when you actually stop and look at the world in which we work. What we should be focusing on is how can we get word out about the damage this causes and how can we get kids to understand that this kind of stuff is not cool, he says.

With everything from virus and spam attacks to stolen personal data to porn intrusions, some of the appeal of the Internet is starting to wane. Will the idea of controlled online communities which filter out such threats make a comeback? Mr Sykes thinks not.

"At the end of the day, the Internet is now beyond control," he says. "But I think future issues will be more about not how people access the Internet, but how the Internet accesses their lives."

Increasingly, this natural evolution will move forward to a point where security will be integrated, or embedded into the Internet, which is already starting to happen, as telecommunications companies explore ways to embed filters and controls to protect their customers.

He also foresees that just as past standalone software products have been merged into packaged suites, the same will be true for security software. So instead of buying a firewall, anti-virus, intrusion and privacy software from four different companies, managing the licenses and updating them one by one, integrated security suites will provide a much simpler and securer solution.

"People won't go out and buy an anti-virus program anymore. They will go out and buy an Internet security program," says Mr Sykes.