Cybercrime costs £242bn a year globally

THE GLOBAL COST of cybercrime is around £242bn a year, according to the Norton Cybercrime report.

According to figures published today, over a million adults fall victim to cybercrime every day. At £242bn, cybercrime also costs more than the entire global trade in cocaine, heroin and marijuana, which is worth £180bn, according to Adam Palmer, lead advisor at Norton Cybersecurity Institute.

Emerging markets shouldered their fare share of cybercrime, costing China £16.1bn, Brazil £9.5bn and India £2.5bn in the past year. Cybercrime costs the UK £1.1bn a year.

According to the report, the most common types of cybercrime are computer viruses and malware, followed by online scams and phishing.

The research estimates that there are 431 million cybercrime victims a year and 44 per cent of people reported having been victims. This is a higher proportion than victims of physical crime at 15 per cent.

Palmer said Chinese users are far more likely to suffer attacks, with 85 per cent of the Chinese falling victim. In the UK, 51 per cent of people reported attacks while Germany and Poland were the most likely European countries for attacks at 76 per cent of users.

Globally 10 per cent of online adults have experienced cybercrime on their mobile phones. This triples to 31 per cent in China where 74 per cent of users access the internet via their mobile phones. µ