Cyberterror to hit in 2003

A major cyberterrorism event will occur in 2003, a technology research group predicted on Thursday, one that will disrupt the economy and bring the Internet to its knees for at least a day or two.

The event could take the form of a denial of service attack, a network intrusion or even a physical attack on key network assets, said John Gantz, chief research officer of IDC. Gantz spoke during a teleconference in which the research company laid out its annual forecast of technology developments in the coming year.

"The war with Iraq will galvanize hackers," Gantz said.

IDC's list of 10 predictions included sunnier projections, too, however. Chief among them was the company's view that spending on information technology and telecommunications will grow by more than 6 percent next year, reaching $1.9 trillion. Gantz said current data on U.S. IT spending and revenues from technology vendors worldwide are encouraging.

IDC generates the list of 10 projections by polling its more-than-700 analysts. Gantz said the company is usually right with 7 out of its 10 predictions. Successful predictions from last year, he said, included "streaming media will catch on," "corporations will reset security plans" and "Web services hype reaches hysteria levels."

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