Just How Big is Cybercrime, Anyway?

Q: How Big is Cybercrime globally?

A: Huge. But how huge may surprise you.

Different researchers relying on different global cybercrime statistics and methodologies arrive at varying conclusions, but they all offer up truly mind-boggling insights. For instance:

The picture painted by Dr. Michael McGuire at the University of Surrey is perhaps even more startling: What if cybercrime were a national economy?

In truth, this is a very conservative estimate (as McGuire makes clear in the report). Some estimates say the impact of cybercrime is double the $1.5 trillion figure he uses, and if it is then cybercrime isn’t the 13th largest economy in the world, it’s #5 – larger than the UK, India, France, Brazil and 187 other countries.

Further, cybercrime’s growth is exploding and is expected to reach $6 trillion globally by 2021. At that pace, only the GDPs of the US and China would be larger.

Food for thought, especially for individuals and organizations who’d rather not be part of that growth…

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