Costs of cybercrime for business estimated at USD 600 billion

A new estimate of the costs of cybercrime on business is almost 600 billion US Dollars, or 0.8 percent global GDP, a study “Economic Impact of Cybercrime – No Slowing Down” by McAfee and the Center for Strategic and International Studies reveals. The costs are up from USD 445 billion estimated in 2014, mainly thanks to new technologies, expanding number of cybercrime centres, and the growing financial sophistication of top-tier cybercriminals. Each day there are 80 billion automated scans for vulnerable targets, 300,000 to a million new malware developed, over 30,000 phishing attempts, and almost 800,000 records lost due to hacking, the study estimates. Such estimations should be taken with reservations, since there is lack of information available on incidents due to underreporting; in addition, studies commonly don’t reveal sources or methodology for estimations of costs.