Oft-cited cybercrime cost estimates hosed down

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.csoonline.com/article/714997/oft-cited-cybercrime-cost-estimates-hosed-down

By Taylor Armerding
CSO
August 29, 2012

President Obama said it in a major speech on cybersecurity. U.S. 
Senators said it while promoting their Cyber Security Act of 2012. Gen. 
Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency and head of 
the U.S. Cyber Command said it while warning of "the greatest transfer 
of wealth in history," through the theft of intellectual property.

But because they cited it -- the estimated cost of cybercrime -- that 
doesn't make it true, a ProPublica report says.

There is general agreement that the worldwide cost of cybercrime is in 
the hundreds of billions. But just how many hundreds of billions is a 
matter of debate, following ProPublica's report that questioned the most 
widely quoted estimates by two major security vendors.

McAfee has estimated the annual cost of cybercrime worldwide at $1 
trillion; Symantec has estimated the annual cost of intellectual 
property theft in the U.S. at $250 billion.

The report says they are exaggerations -- perhaps vast -- noting that 
the $1 trillion figure was not even in the actual McAfee report, but in 
the press releases about it.

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