Hackers Will Cost Businesses ‘More Than £1.3 Trillion’ By 2019

The cost of cybercrime are set to reach record levels within the next few years as hackers look to gain richer prizes than ever before, according to new research.

A report from Juniper Research has estimated that data breaches and cybercrime will cost businesses around the globe a whopping $2.1 trillion (£1.3tn) by 2019 – four times the cost of breaches this year.

The firm estimates in its Cybercrime and the Internet of Threats white paper that the average cost of a data breach rising to exceed $150 million (£95.78m) by 2020, as more and more business infrastructure gets connected.

Under threat

And with data breaches and attacks becoming an unfortunately common event, many businesses will just need to accept the fact they will soon be hit, and possibly by a variety of threats.

Sixty percent of those businesses who are attacked this year will be based in the US, the report predicts, but Juniper expects this to change as more international businesses develop and grow richer.

On a personal level, the report also warned that, although they don’t pose much of a risk at the moment, wearables and connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices are likely to become more attractive to hackers in the future.

An increase in ransomware based on personal data shakedowns is one worrying possibility, the firm said, as consumers increasingly share more and more data about themselves.

“Currently, we aren’t seeing much dangerous mobile or IoT malware because it’s not profitable,” said Juniper Research analyst James Moar, the author of the report.

“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 pay-out from IoT hacks, there is little motive for criminals to develop the required tools.”

The threat that ransomware poses to consumers was highlighted yesterday by a new strain detected in Australia that uses branding from the TV show Breaking Bad as part of its extortion process.

Research released last week by Kaspersky revealed that mobile ransomware had grown 65 percent year on year, with mobile browsers also recorded as accounting for 64 percent of mobile exploits, showing that users need to remain on their guard at all times.

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