Cost per cybercrime victim goes up by half – Norton Report

2 Oct 2013

The global direct cost of cybercrime has risen to an amount that would host the 2012 London Olympics nearly 10 times over, the 2013 Norton Report suggests. That total cost of US$113bn is up from US$110bn last year, while the average cost per victim of cybercrime has jumped to US$298 from US$197 in the same time frame.

The number of adults online who have experienced cybercrime, however, has decreased. There are about 378m cybercrime victims per year. Broken down, that’s more than 1m cybercrime victims each day and 12 per second, according to the report.

“Today’s cyber-criminals are using more sophisticated attacks, such as ransomware and spear-phishing, which yield them more money per attack than ever before,” said Stephen Trilling, chief technology officer of IT security solutions provider Symantec.

Symantec has released the report’s findings.

“With the findings from the Norton Report that 49pc of consumers use their personal mobile device for both work and play, this creates entirely new security risks for enterprises as cyber-criminals have the potential to access even more valuable information.”

The report also found that while nearly half of all smartphone users actually sleep with their devices, they are not protecting them. Forty-eight per cent of smartphone and tablet users do not use passwords, have security software, or back up files from their mobile devices.

“If this was a test, mobile consumers would be failing,” said Marian Merritt, internet safety advocate, Symantec.

“While consumers are protecting their computers, there is a general lack of awareness to safeguard their smartphones and tablets. It’s as if they have alarm systems for their homes, but they’re leaving their cars unlocked with the windows wide open.”

The 2013 Norton Report is based on self-reported experiences of more than 13,000 adults across 24 countries.

Hacker image via Shutterstock

Inforgraphic

Tina Costanza was a journalist and sub-editor at Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com