How We Conducted The Survey

The 2001 Global Information Security Survey, fielded by PricewaterhouseCoopers, is an editorial research product of InformationWeek and its affiliates in South America, Europe, and Asia. The study, now in its fourth year, was conducted from April to July by mail and online. It was completed by 4,500 security professionals in 42 countries and six languages. The U.S. portion of the study was fielded entirely on the Web, using a site protected by Secure Sockets Layer technology.

Kadence LLC of London hosted the survey and tabulated the data under the supervision of PricewaterhouseCoopers. The U.S. sample was drawn from the subscriber base of InformationWeek. VNU, a European publishing company, supplied a significant portion of the European survey sample. To the best of our knowledge, the study was fielded in compliance with European and American data-privacy laws.

Individual responses were never examined in conducting the study. The results are aggregated and analyzed by representatives of CMP Media (publisher of InformationWeek), Kadence, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and VNU.

John DiStefano, principal researcher with CMP Media's Reality Research, calculated the worldwide figures regarding damages caused by security breaches.

The full report can be purchased at informationweekresearch.com.