Global annual cybercrime costs will grow to $6 trillion annually by 2021, according to a report by Cybersecurity Ventures. The annual costs related to cycbercrime totaled $3 trillion in 2015.
Cybercrime costs include "damage and destruction of data, stolen money, lost productivity, theft of intellectual property, theft of personal and financial data, embezzlement, fraud, post-attack disruption to the normal course of business, forensic investigation, restoration and deletion of hacked data and systems and reputational harm."
Here are four findings from the report:
1. Global spending on cybersecurity products and services is expected to increase to more than $1 trillion cumulatively over the next five years.
2. There is a severe shortage in the cybersecurity workforce — with 1 million open cybersecurity jobs in 2016.
3. Corporations are increasingly turning to third-party data breach and incident response firms as well as managed security service providers for help with defense against cyber attacks.
4. Nearly half of all cyber attacks are committed against small businesses.