BY Richard Summerfield
Global losses from cyber crime have increased by over 50 percent since 2018 and now total over $1 trillion per year, according to McAfee’s new global report, ‘The Hidden Costs of Cybercrime’.
The report, produced in partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), focuses on the significant financial and unseen impacts of cyber crime worldwide. The study is based on data collected by Vanson Bourne, which interviewed a screened, representative sample of 1500 cross-sector IT and line of business decision makers between April and June 2020, alongside CSIS interviews with government officials, open source material, and IMF income data.
According to the report, in 2019, two-thirds of organisations reported some kind of cyber security incident, while the average cost of an incident to an individual company has now topped $500,000.
“The severity and frequency of cyberattacks on businesses continues to rise as techniques evolve, new technologies broaden the threat surface, and the nature of work expands into home and remote environments,” said Steve Grobman, senior vice president and chief technology officer at McAfee.
“While industry and government are aware of the financial and national security implications of cyberattacks, unplanned downtime, the cost of investigating breaches and disruption to productivity represent less appreciated high impact costs. We need a greater understanding of the comprehensive impact of cyber risk and effective plans in place to respond and prevent cyber incidents given the hundreds of billions of dollars of global financial impact,” he added.
There are many factors at play in the growing cost of cyber crime for businesses today. While cyber criminals are better, more accurate and more sophisticated, there is also better and more accurate incident reporting done by organisations.
2020, has, of course, presented its own challenges. With significant increase in remote working brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, there has also been a commensurate increase in ransomware attacks and phishing-related incidents.
Worryingly, the report noted that 56 percent of the organisations surveyed did not have a plan to both prevent and respond to a cyber security incident. Of those that did, only 32 percent believed it was effective.
Report: The Hidden Costs of Cybercrime