Cyber-espionage is just one more item that must be tacked onto a CIO's must worry list this year. A new report by the SANS Institute, one of the world's top IT security training organizations, says that cyber-espionage is moving away from government targets and into the commercial world. The SANS Institute says that the problem will grow this year, as overseas companies look for renegade information to get the upper hand in business deals with large companies in the United States and Europe. "Cyber-espionage is clearly growing across the board. It was much bigger in 2007 than in previous years, and it is expanding slowly into economic espionage involving both businesses and government entities," Alan Paller, director of research for SANS, told Infoworld.

"This really has a lot of significant implications because people who have never thought of themselves as targets for this type of attack have suddenly become a sweet spot, and many are not prepared to defend themselves," he adds. The attack of choice in cyber-espionage is a targeted spear-phishing campaign that tricks workers into opening tainted attachments and then allows the hacker to gain entrance to the system. So be warned--2008 is a year to be on the lookout for dangerous intrusions, and it is a year to make sure they do not occur. For CIOs, it's important not just to keep your guard up, but to implement strategies that will keep the bad guys out of your systems.

For more on cyber-espionage:
- See this InfoWorld article