(LiveHacking.Com) – The new Norton Cybercrime Report has put the cost of cyber crime to the world’s economy at $388bn annually, a figure that is greater than the combined global market for marijuana, cocaine and heroin ($288bn). Another startling statistic is that cybercrime costs are more than 100 times the annual expenditure of UNICEF ($3.65 billion).
The report, which was compiled using data from 24 countries, says that 431m adults experienced cybercrime in the last year. That is more than a million victims every day or 14 adults every second.
In terms of viruses and malware, the report notes that:
- 4 in 10 adults surveyed do not have an up-to-date security software suite to protect their personal information online
- 54% of online adults have experienced viruses or malware on their computers
- 6 in 10 users of free AV software reported viruses and malware attacks
With regards to protection against viruses and malware, the report says that inadequate security software exposes people unnecessarily to the dangers of computer viruses and malware. With many failing to do the single easiest thing to prevent cyberattacks – i.e. install a full security suite – adults globally are going online, for considerable amounts of time, unprotected against the most common types of cybercrime.
And it is this last part which possibly reveals the true nature of the report. Although I don’t doubt the facts and figures, highlighting things like “6 in 10 users of free AV software reported viruses and malware attacks” and that the “single easiest thing to prevent cyberattacks” is to “install a full security suite” reminds us that this report is published by Norton/Symantec who want to sell you their security software.
