Anna Fleck, Data Journalist at Statista
According to estimates from Statista’s Market Insights, the global cost of cybercrime is expected to surge in the next four years, rising from $9.22 trillion in 2024 to $13.82 trillion by 2028. Cybercrime is defined by Cyber Crime Magazine as the “damage and destruction of data, stolen money, lost productivity, theft of intellectual property, theft of personal and financial data, embezzlement, fraud, post-attack disruption to the normal course of business, forensic investigation, restoration and deletion of hacked data and systems, and reputational harm.”
As more and more people turn online, whether for work or their personal lives, there are more potential opportunities for cyber criminals to exploit. At the same time, attacker techniques are becoming more advanced, with more tools available to help scammers.
The coronavirus pandemic saw a particular shift in cyber attacks, as Statista’s Market Insights analysts explain: “The COVID-19 crisis led to many organizations facing more cyberattacks due to the security vulnerability of remote work as well as the shift to virtualized IT environments, such as the infrastructure, data, and network of cloud computing.”
Read more on the costliest cyber attacks below:
The Costliest Types of Cyber Crime
by Katharina Buchholz, Mar 23, 2022
According to a report released by the FBI yesterday, losses to cyber crime increased significantly in 2021. The losses – which are located mainly in the U.S. but were collected around the world – are estimated at $6.9 billion last year, up from $4.2 billion in 2020.
The costliest crime recorded by the FBI was business email compromise and personal email compromise, which targets businesses and individuals that engage in wire transfers by breaking into their emails. In 2021, almost $2.4 billion were lost this way.
The report was released on the heels of U.S. warnings about an expected increase in Russian cyber attacks as retaliation for sanctions imposed on the country in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden warned businesses on Monday that their vulnerabilities might be exploited by Russian operatives. Other costly cyber crimes with businesses at their center were personal data breaches and corporate data breaches, which occur when criminals steal or release the personal data of individuals or companies previously stored in a secure location.
The U.S. government also warned about possible Russian cyber attacks on infrastructure like the electrical grid, water treatment plants or hospitals.
Cyber crimes targeting individuals were also very costly in the U.S. and around the world, with investment, romance, real estate and tech support scams carrying a combined price tag of more than $3 billion. Investment fraud was also the fastest-growing cyber crime category opposite 2020, becoming 333 percent more costly, followed by personal data breaches and tech support scams.
Out of all victims recorded by the FBI, 59 percent were located in the U.S., 38 percent in the UK and 3 percent elsewhere.
ENDS
Articles published courtesy of Statista:
https://www.statista.com/chart/28878/expected-cost-of-cybercrime-until-2027/
https://www.statista.com/chart/27097/most-expensive-types-of-cyber-crime-us/
