Cybercrime price tag to reach $2 trillion

Mobile devices actually aren't the big target
By Erin McCann
11:11 AM

If you haven't gotten serious about data cyberattacks at your organization, now's the time to do so. Because they're about to hit companies worldwide with a $2.1 trillion price tag.

At least that's according to new research published by Juniper Research, which took a closer look at the costs associated with cybercrime and what they'll end up costing companies on a global scale. And the numbers are staggering.

[See also: Criminal attacks become No. 1 cause of data breaches.]

Going digital will increase the cost of data breaches to almost four times the cost estimated for this year, reaching $2.1 trillion (yes, that's trillion with a "t") in 2019. Breaking that down to the average cost of one of the breaches? Corporations can count on paying more than $150 million per breach by 2020.

The report, which focuses on both corporate and financial threats, underscored that the lion's share of these breaches will not come from targeting mobile devices. Rather, cybercriminals are still going after traditional IT and network infrastructure.

[See also: Employees top cause of security mishaps.]

"Currently, we aren't seeing much dangerous mobile or IoT malware because it's not profitable," said James Moar, research analyst at Juniper Research and author of the report, in a press statement. "The kind of threats we will see on these devices will be either ransomware, with consumers' devices locked down until they pay the hackers to use their devices, or as part of botnets, where processing power is harnessed as part of a more lucrative hack. With the absence of a direct payout from IoT hacks, there is little motive for criminals to develop the required tools."

Juniper analysts also say some 60 percent of these global cyberattacks will target North American companies. 

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