Cybercrime has for years been one of the biggest risks to organisations, compromising sensitive data and causing brutal financial losses and – despite other headwinds and challenges the business sector faces in 2023 – it still remains the number one threat to companies this year.
This is according to new research from TradingPlatforms.com which says that with a 34% share among respondents, cybercrime is the biggest risk to businesses in 2023, ahead of supply issues and inflation.
Companies and organisations worldwide are losing billions due to cybercrime each year. Although many significantly boosted cybersecurity budgets, data breaches, phishing, ransomware attacks, and cyber espionage are still a huge threat to their operations.
According to the Allianz Risk Barometer survey conducted among risk management experts worldwide, although cyber incidents have a smaller share among respondents than in 2022, they remain the leading risk to businesses globally. Last year, 44% of surveyed people named malware and ransomware attacks, IT failure or outages, and data breaches the biggest threat to their companies and organisations, or 10% more than in 2023.
Business interruption or supply chain disruption is the second-largest threat this year, with a 34% share among respondents. Macroeconomic development, including inflation, deflation and monetary policies, climbed five spots and became the third-largest risk for businesses with a 25% share, up from 11% a year ago.
Energy crisis and changes in legislation and regulation round the top five list, with a 22% and 19% share among respondents respectively. The survey also revealed companies and organisations are the least worried about the loss of reputation, product recalls, and environmental risks.
According to Statista data, companies and organisations have every right to be worried about cybercrime and its devastating effect on their operations.
In just three years, between 2016 and 2019, global cybercrime cost nearly doubled and hit $1,16-trillion. These costs include stolen money, damage and destruction of data, lost productivity, stealing of intellectual property, theft of personal or financial data, post-attack disruption to the ordinary course of business, restoration, and deletion of hacked data and systems, as well as reputational harm.
After Covid-19 struck, the figures exploded. With companies and organisations worldwide speeding up digitalisation, the annual cybercrime cost skyrocketed 155% year-over-year to $2,95-trillion in 2020. A year later, this figure more than doubled and hit around $6-trillion.
The Statista data shows cybercrime inflicted damages totaling $8,44-trillion last year, or 630% more than in 2019. If measured as a country, cybercrime would be the world’s third-largest economy after the US and China. Statista expects global cybercrime cost to swell by another 40% year-over-year and hit $11,5-trillion in 2023.