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FBI Study Shows Computer Crime Costs $67 billion
Washington, D.C. -- According to the FBI, dealing with viruses, spyware, PC theft and other malware cost U.S. businesses roughly $67.2 billion in 2005. In a recent survey of 2,066 organizations, 1,324 respondents, or 64 percent, suffered a financial loss from computer security incidents over a 12-month period. The total cost for those surveyed was $32 million for those surveyed, or an average cost per company of more than $24,000. The FBI then calculated the price tag by extrapolating results from this survey. Often survey results can be skewed, because poll respondents are more likely to answer when they have experienced a problem. So, when extrapolating the survey results to estimate the national cost, the FBI reduced the estimated number of affected organizations from 64 percent to a more conservative 20 percent.
“This would be 2.8 million U.S. organizations experiencing at least one computer security incident,” stated the 2005 FBI Computer Crime Survey. “With each of these 2.8 million organizations incurring a $24,000 average loss, this would total $67.2 billion per year.”
By comparison, telecommunication fraud losses are about only $1 billion a year, according to the U.S. Secret Service. Also, the overall cost to Americans of identity fraud reached $52.6 billion in 2004, according to Javelin Strategy & Research. Other surveys have attempted to put a dollar amount on cybersecurity damages in the past, but the FBI believes its estimate is the most accurate because of the large number of respondents, said Bruce Verduyn, the special agent who managed the survey project. “The data set is three or four times larger than in past surveys,” he said. “It is obviously a staggering number, but that is the reality of what we see.”
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