Most large corporations and government agencies have been attacked by computer hackers, but more often and more frequently they do not inform authorities of the breaches, an FBI survey finds. . . .
Most large corporations and government agencies have been attacked by computer hackers, but more often and more frequently they do not inform authorities of the breaches, an FBI survey finds.

The survey released Sunday found about 90 percent of respondents detected computer security breaches in the past year but only 34 percent reported those attacks to authorities.

Many respondents cited the fear of bad publicity about computer security.

"There is much more illegal and unauthorized activity going on in cyberspace than corporations admit to their clients, stockholders and business partners or report to law enforcement," said Patrice Rapalus, director of the Computer Security Institute, which conducted the survey with the FBI's San Francisco computer crime squad.

The seventh annual survey polled 503 American corporations, government agencies, financial and medical institutions and universities. The names of the organizations polled were not released.