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McAfee Report: Global Cybercrime Losses Exceed $1 Trillion

Cybercrime costs the global economy more than $1 trillion, according to "The Hidden Costs of Cybercrime" report from antivirus, cloud and endpoint security company McAfee. This figure exceeds 1 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) and is up 50 percentage points from 2018.

Other notable findings from McAfee's report included:

  • 96 percent of organizations said they experienced a cyber incident last year.
  • 92 percent indicated there were other negative effects on their organization beyond the financial costs and lost work hours associated with a cyber incident.
  • 74 percent of organizations that experienced security incidents in 2019 shared information about their most severe incidents with clients or customers.
  • It takes an average of 19 hours for most organizations to move from incident discovery to remediation.
  • On average, it takes the time of eight people to detect and respond to an IT security incident.

In addition, the following report results highlight the impact of downtime associated with cyber incidents:

  • 68 percent of organizations reported they experienced downtime because cyber incidents, with downtime usually lasting less than one day.
  • The average cost of downtime associated with a cyber incident was $590,000.
  • Organizations lost an average of nine work hours when they experienced downtime due to a cyber incident.

Every organization is susceptible to cyber incidents, and each must plan accordingly, McAfee indicated. To do so, McAfee offered the following cybersecurity recommendations:

  • Implement basic security measures at all levels of an organizations
  • Prioritize transparency within an organization
  • Standardize and coordinate cybersecurity requirements across all departments
  • Provide cybersecurity training to teach employees at all levels how to identify and mitigate cyber incidents
  • Develop cyber incident prevention and response plans

Ongoing cybersecurity planning and communication also can help organizations improve their response to cyber incidents, McAfee stated. If organizations deploy cybersecurity planning and communication initiatives, they are well-equipped to detect and alleviate cyber incidents in their early stages.

Dan Kobialka

Dan Kobialka is senior contributing editor, MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E. He covers IT security, IT service provider business strategies and partner programs. Dan holds a M.A. in Print and Multimedia Journalism from Emerson College and a B.A. in English from Bridgewater State University. In his free time, Dan enjoys jogging, traveling, playing sports, touring breweries and watching football.

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