Ponemon study shows costs of cybercrime still rising – each attack now costs $1 million

The costs of cybercrime have continued to rise for victims, for the fourth consecutive year, according to a survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute.
Each cyberattack now costs companies nearly $1 million to resolve, on average – and the annualized cost to a sample of U.S. organizations was $11.56 million.
The researchers suggest that cybercrime has become significantly more sophisticated during this period, according to TechWeekEurope.
In a statement, researchers said, “The sophistication of cyberattacks has grown exponentially in recent years, as adversaries both specialize and share intelligence in order to obtain sensitive data and disrupt critical enterprise functions.”
Since Ponemon conducted its first Cost of Cyber Crime study four years ago, the cost to companies has risen 78%. The Institute said that the time taken to resolve such cyberattacks has risen nearly 130%.
The report suggests that big data analytics is one tool companies could use to fight back against such sophisticated adversaries, according to Silicon Angle.
Cybercriminals are hitting frequently, too – 122 successful attacks per week, up from 102 attacks per week in 2012.
The statistics, based on interviews with 1,000 security professionals around the world, in a survey sponsored by HP, found that the average time to resolve such incidents was 32 days.
“The most costly cybercrimes are caused by denial-of-service, malicious-insider and web-based attacks, together accounting for more than 55 percent of all cybercrime costs per organization on an annual basis,” the researchers say.
“Information theft continues to represent the highest external costs, with business disruption a close second.⁽On an annual basis, information loss accounts for 43 percent of total external costs, down 2 percent from 2012. Business disruption or lost productivity accounts for 36 percent of external costs, an increase of 18 percent from 2012.”
The Ponemon study took in 234 companies, with costs ranging from $1 million per year to $56 million.
ESET offers its own “road map” for smaller businesses to help deal with an increasingly challenging security environment.
ESET Senior Researcher Stephen Cobb says, “Criminal hacking is making headlines with depressing frequency these days, so the task of securing your business against cyber criminals can seem daunting, particularly if your business is of modest size, the kind of place that does not have a crack team of cyber security experts on staff.”