Nobody knows the extent or consequences of computer crime in South Africa as national computer crime statistics do not exist. The Department of Information Systems at Cape Town University undertook an ambitious project recently, when they set out to produce the first South African study on computer crime and security. Similar studies were done in the US and Australia, allowing for comparative data in some instances.

When asked if they had been electronically attacked in the past 12 months, 45 percent of the South African respondents admitted they had. Most of these had experienced between one and five attacks in the past year.