Annual cost of cybercrime hits near $400 billion

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2360983/security0/annual-cost-of-cybercrime-hits-near-400-billion.html

By Ellen Messmer
NetworkWorld
June 9, 2014

An estimate of the global cost of cybercrime — losses from cyber-espionage 
theft of intellectual property, plus all types of personal and financial 
data stolen and dealing with the fallout — is being tabbed at least $400 
billion annually, according to the report published today by the Center 
for Strategic and International Studies.

In its report “Net Losses: Estimating the Global Cost of Cybercrime,” 
Washington, D.C.-based think tank CSIS claims the countries hit most are 
the United States, China and Germany based on their overall national 
wealth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Those three countries together are 
estimated to have suffered $200 billion in cybercrime losses on an annual 
basis. CSIS acknowledges there’s going to be debate over how to calculate 
the cost of cybercrime the way it broadly defines it. But CSIS, whose 
research draws largely from the work of economists, argues it could not be 
lower than $375 billion and the maximum could actually be $575 billion.

“Even the smallest of these figures is more than the national income of 
most countries and governments and companies underestimate how much risk 
they face from cybercrime and how quickly this risk can grow,” the report 
says.

By coincidence, the CSIS report on the cost of cybercrime comes in the 
wake of the U.S. Department of Justice crime charges related to alleged 
cybercrime operations in China and Eastern Europe that are accused of 
stealing millions of dollars from U.S. businesses through either theft of 
trade secrets or outright financial fraud.

[...]

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