Cybercrime Cleanup Costs Spike

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/attacks/231300047

By Mathew J. Schwartz
InformationWeek
August 02, 2011

Over the past year, the median cost of cybercrime increased by 56%, and 
now costs companies an average of $6 million per year.

That finding comes from Ponemon Institute, which on Tuesday released its 
Second Annual Cost of Cyber Crime Study, sponsored by HP ArcSight. For 
the study, Ponemon questioned 50 U.S.-based businesses, ranging in size 
from 700 to 139,000 employees, about "the direct, indirect, and 
opportunity costs that resulted from the loss or theft of information, 
disruption to business operations, revenue loss, and destruction of 
property, plant, and equipment."

Ponemon found that from 2010 to 2011, the time and cost required to 
respond to security breaches has been increasing. Notably, the time 
organizations required to respond to a successful attack increased from 
14 days last year to 18 days this year. Over the same period, the 
average daily cost of attacks increased from $17,600 to nearly $23,000.

In addition, the study found that organizations experienced an average 
of "72 discernible and successful cyber attacks per week," which is an 
increase of 44% from the previous year. Of the resulting costs incurred 
by organizations, the largest was information loss (accounting for 40% 
of the total cost), followed by business disruption (28%), revenue loss 
(18%), and equipment damage (9%).

[...]


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