Cost of cybercrime is booming

According to HP, the cost of cybercrime has increased by 78% in four years and in the same, the time required to respond to attacks has more than doubled. Moreover, attacks are getting much more frequent.

Developed by the Ponemon Institute for HP, the 2013 edition of the Cost of Cybercrime study shows that cybercrime has reached a US$11.56 million cost to a representative sample of U.S. companies , representing an increase of 78 % compared to HP first study four years ago. This study also found that the time required to neutralize a cyberattack has increased nearly by 130% during the same period, the average cost incurred to counter a single attack has reached a million dollars.

Cyberattacks are also becoming more sophisticated, as cybercriminals are increasingly specialized and share information to obtain confidential data and interrupt critical business functions.

The average annual cost of cybercrime per company has reached US$11.56 million, the range being comprised between 1.3 and 58 million. This represents an increase of 26 % or $ 2.6 million, compared to the average cost reported in 2012.

Companies face on average 122 successful attacks per week, v.s. 102 in 2012.

The time to solve a cyberattack is 32 days, with an average cost associated with the attack is US$1,035,769 or US$ 32,469 on average per day, which means an increase of 55 % compared last year – 591,780 dollars for a time to solve the attacks of 24 days on average.

The most costly cybercrime activities are those related to malware and denial of service. Information theft continues to be the highest external cost, followed by disruptions. On an annual basis, information loss account for 43 % of total external costs, and is down by 2% compared to 2012. Business interruption or loss of productivity accounts for 36 % of external costs, which is up by 18% compared to 2012.

If the cost of cybercrime differs according to the size of businesses, small structures show a much higher cost than large employee groups.
The cost of cybercrime is significantly greater in the following sectors: financial services, defense, energy and public services in retail, hospitality and consumer products.

Along with this HP study of U.S. companies, the Ponemon Institute conducted dedicated studies in Australia, Germany, Japan and the UK for the second consecutive year. A survey with French firms was conducted for the first time this year. Among the countries studied, the U.S. companies showed the strongest impact in terms of cybercrime, with an average total cost of US$ 11.6 million, the cost reaching US$ 5.19 million for French companies appear.
The latest Norton report 2013 revealed that every second, 12 people surfing on the internet in the world become the victims of online malicious acts. This is actually more than 1 million people every day. Over a year, 378 millions of adults in the world become the victims of cybercrime.

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