What’s the True Cost of Cybercrime?

Do you have an idea what the cost of cybercrime is on an annual basis? Most people would guess millions, or maybe even billions. That would be a rather conservative estimate, though.

Unfortunately, the costs actually reach trillions of pounds globally every year. But that's just the base financial cost measured in the losses made by companies and individuals. The true cost is hard to calculate.

Who knows how many incidents have gone unnoticed or even unreported. Companies might try to hide the fact that their systems have been breached because admitting this would damage their reputation.

It's something that some companies can never quite recover from. And while it's wrong not to admit what happened, we can understand why they'd be reluctant to report the incident. After all, who wants to be held responsible for leaking customers personal data?

That said, most of the larger companies now have breach plans in place. They have procedures that dictate how they react should a breach occur. A standard part of these plans nowadays is to ensure that companies get the PR aspect right.

Thanks to the GDPR, companies can face hefty fines if they are found to have been negligent when it comes to client security. Hiding the fact that a breach had occurred could land the company in even more hot water, so businesses are starting to believe that it's better to own up when something goes wrong in this arena.

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The stakes are just as high for people who are victims of this kind of crime in their personal capacity. Identity theft is one of the top-performing cybercrimes, and this is why personal data is such a hot commodity.

A criminal can use this data to get credit in your name or evade prosecution, or she could sell the information to someone else. Whatever they do with it, your personal information is like catnip for criminals.