NCJ Number
142288
Date Published
1992
Length
159 pages
Annotation
The attitudes of French information scientists toward information security are surveyed and analyzed. A BST The sample population of 237 information scientists in a French administrative district responded to a 100-item questionnaire. The results verified the researchers' hypothesis that information scientists are extremely tolerant of crimes against information security. The majority of the interviewees showed concern about computer crime only if they or their company was victimized, for example, through computer viruses. Furthermore, both conservative and liberal information scientists expressed attitudes and ideologies which encourage information crime. For example, 94 percent were convinced that no security system is infallible, and 30 percent had taken no measures to protect their company's information. Over one-third even believed that it takes an interesting, intelligent person to penetrate an information system without authorization. Nearly 30 percent stated that information should not be the property of a specific company; in fact, 20 percent urged that access to information systems should be entirely free. The study concludes that these attitudes of tolerance make information systems especially vulnerable to crime. The survey includes statistical charts and graphs; the questionnaire and additional notes are appended.