With malicious hacking on the rise, corporate computer networks increasingly linked to the Internet are as easy to penetrate as fists punching through Jello. Long in denial, corporate America is starting to listen. Company-approved attacks by ethical hackers are cropping up nationwide. So far, their efforts are rarely unsuccessful. From a windowless room in the New York City suburbs, IBM's security squad launches its hacks on dozens of corporate customers.
Work is plentiful.
That's up from 50 percent in the 1997 survey and 42 percent in 1996. And while company computer systems were hit both internally and externally, companies' Internet connections were cited increasingly as a frequent point of attack. But security expertise does not come cheap. Security experts say companies simply will have to pay to play on a secure Internet. At California high-tech giant Sun Microsystems, Linda McCarthy spent years breaking into the networks of her employer.