Posted at 6:47 a.m. PDT Wednesday, April 8, 1998 
Net attacks much less frequent than many fear
BY PETER WEISS
Contra Costa Times

[snip...]

His analysis shows no more than 2.5 million attacks in 1995, for instance,
whereas other experts have estimated the number as high as 900 million. Of
the worst Internet security crises in the same year -- those that involved
dozens of sites over a period of weeks -- no more than 4 percent could
have gone undetected by CERT/CC, he claims. 

OCCURRENCE, PROBABILITY:

Convenience store robbery, 2 in 3

Computer hard disk failure, 1 in 75

100-year flood, 1 in 100

Serious structural fire (New York City), 1 in 220

Internet break-in where attacker gains control of computer, 1 in 540

Chance of death in car wreck, 1 in 6,250

Chance of death in fire (NYC), 1 in 40,000

X X X

Source: Analysis of security incidents on the Internet 1989-1995