Cyber crime is a growth industry that’s stripping the global economy of billions of dollars each year. The total losses have been the subject of debate, but a study released this week says cyber crime could cost the global economy as much as $575 billion a year.
The report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates the likely annual cost to the global economy is more than $445 billion, a figure that includes both the gains to criminals and the costs to companies for recovery and defense. The maximum annual losses could be as high as $575 billion, according to the report sponsored by security software company McAfee.
The cost to individuals whose personal information was stolen is estimated at $160 billion a year. Forty million people in the U.S., roughly 15 percent of the population, have had their personal information stolen by hackers, according to the study.
G20 nations tend to bear the burnt of the losses, according to the study. The four largest economies in the world–U.S., China, Japan and Germany–lost $200 billion due to cyber crime in 2013, according to the report.