IntaPeople News
Cyber crime costs businesses £21bn a year - 09/03/2011
Cyber crime in the UK is costing the economy in the region of £27bn a year, with business the major victim, according to a report from the Office of Cyber Security and consultancy Detica.
While the government and the public each lose £3.1bn a year as a result of illegal online activity, businesses are left out of pocket to the tune of £21bn. Pharmaceuticals and biotech, electronics, IT and chemicals were highlighted as the sectors most affected.
Breaking down the cost, the report said that the UK loses £9.2bn through the theft of intellectual property (IP), £7.6bn from industrial espionage, and a further £2.2bn from extortion.
Baroness Neville-Jones, minister of state for security, commented: “This report shows that there is a cost if the economy is not cyber secure. The intellectual property is the wealth of the nation.”
She went on to say that, as with counter terror operations, efforts will most likely be focused on disrupting attacks. This might involve striking certain networks when cyber criminals are identified.
However, not everyone has agreed on the extent of the government’s figures. One professor at the London School of Economics attacked the report as a ‘sales promotion exercise’ by BAE Systems, which owns Detica.
“The whole report has been orientated to areas in which BAE can offer its facilities and services,” he claimed.
A spokesperson for the Cabinet said that it worked with Detica to create a model that would indicate the scale and a ‘first estimate’ of the cost of cyber crime to economy.