Global economy suffers $445bn loss annually from cyber crimes

The report, published last week, said damage to business alone from theft of intellectual property and hacking amounts to $160 billion loss yearly.The study, which was sponsored by security software company McAfee, also revealed that conservative estimate would be $375 billion in losses, while the maximum could be as much as $575 billion.Jim Lewis of […]

The report, published last week, said damage to business alone from theft of intellectual property and hacking amounts to $160 billion loss yearly.
The study, which was sponsored by security software company McAfee, also revealed that conservative estimate would be $375 billion in losses, while the maximum could be as much as $575 billion.
Jim Lewis of CSIS commented on the report in a statement, “Cyber crime is a tax on innovation and slows the pace of global innovation by reducing the rate of return to innovators and investors. For developed countries, cyber crime has serious implications for employment.”
The world’s biggest economies bore the brunt of the losses, the research found, with the toll on the United States, China, Japan and Germany reaching $200 billion a year in total.
Losses connected to personal information, such as stolen credit card data, was put at up to $150 billion.
About 40 million people in the United States, roughly 15 percent of the population, have had personal information stolen by hackers, it said, while high-profile breaches affected 54 million people in Turkey, 16 million in Germany and more than 20 million in China.
McAfee, owned by Intel Corp, said improved international collaboration was beginning to show results in reducing cyber crime.