New research shows worldwide losses from cyber-crime now total more than $1 trillion.

According to a new report by McAfee and Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), losses from cyber-crime have seen a 50 per cent increase from 2018.

The study found that 56 per cent of surveyed organisations said they don’t have a plan to both prevent and respond to cyber-incidents, while two-thirds of companies reported some kind of cyber incident last year.

The research also revealed that the average interruption to operations was 18 hours, with the average cost being more than $500,000 per incident.

“The severity and frequency of cyberattacks on businesses continues to rise as techniques evolve, new technologies broaden the threat surface, and the nature of work expands into home and remote environments” said Steve Grobman, senior vice president and chief technology officer, McAfee. “While industry and government are aware of the financial and national security implications of cyber-attacks, unplanned downtime, the cost of investigating breaches and disruption to productivity represent less appreciated high impact costs.

“We need a greater understanding of the comprehensive impact of cyber risk and effective plans in place to respond and prevent cyber incidents given the 100s of billions of dollars of global financial impact.”

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