Cybercrime Costs Global Economy Up To $575 Bn Annually: Mcafee

BANGALORE: The growing menace of cybercrime is impacting the global economy significantly with estimated annual losses of up to $575 billion, a report by cybersecurity solutions firm McAfee revealed.

The report, Net Losses — Estimating the Global Cost of Cybercrime, by Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and sponsored by McAfee also said the cost includes the effect on hundreds of millions of people who had their personal information stolen.

“We estimate that likely annual cost to global economy from cybercrime is more than $400 billion. A conservative estimate would be $375 billion in losses, while the maximum could be as much as $575 billion,” the report said.

Part of the losses from cybercrime are directly connected to ‘recovery costs’ or the digital and electronic clean-up that must occur after an attack has taken place.

Cybercrime damages trade, competitiveness, innovation, and global economic growth. Studies estimate that the Internet economy annually generates between $2 trillion and $3 trillion, a share of the global economy that is expected to grow rapidly, it added.

Based on CSIS estimates, cybercrime extracts between 15 per cent and 20 per cent of the value created by the Internet.

Explaining the process for reaching the impact figure, the report said, “If we used the loss by high-income countries to extrapolate a global figure, this would give us a global total of $575 billion.