Cybercrime costs U.S. economy up to $140 billion annually, report says

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-cybercrime-140-billion-dollars-economy-20130722,0,308705.story

By Paresh Dave
The Los Angeles Times
July 22, 2013

Cyberattacks may be draining as much as $140 billion and half a million 
jobs from the U.S. economy each year, according to a new study that 
splashes water on a previous estimate of $1 trillion in annual losses.

“That’s our best guess,” said James Andrew Lewis, the director of the 
technology and public policy program at the Center for Strategic and 
International Studies.

The center completed the study with the help from cybersecurity giant 
McAfee and came up with the new figures by relying on models, such as 
those used to estimate the economic effects of car crashes and ocean 
piracy, instead of surveys of companies.

Four years ago, McAfee and then politicians and other industry leaders 
started citing a $1-trillion figure that had been based on surveys. Lewis 
called reliance on surveys faulty, and McAfee was quick to say on Monday 
that it commissioned the new study to refine the widely cited and 
often-criticized tally.

"We believe the CSIS report is the first to use actual economic modeling 
to build out the figures for the losses attributable to malicious 
cyberactivity," said Mike Fey, executive vice president and chief 
technology officer at McAfee.

[...]

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