Referring to a report by the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA), the White House announced (PDF) on Friday that cyberattacks cost the economy of USA from $57 to $109 billion in 2016.
The assessment includes damage caused by various activities, such as DDoS attacks, data breaches, ransoms, infrastructure disruptions, loss of working hours, theft of private data, intellectual property, and sensitive economic and strategic information.
Previous studies have shown that most cyber incidents target online businesses, affecting their operations, mainly due to delays in customer-company transactions.
The lack of appropriate measures security it helped the attackers a lot, but not as much as the secrecy of the companies, who choose not to report the hacks and share the information with security agencies, and other companies at risk.
The CEA report sees this data sharing as a critical factor in today's market, mainly because most companies tend to use the same tools in their infrastructures – which often contain vulnerabilities.
The disclosure of the details of cyberattack it will not only help victims fight attackers but also accelerate the development of cyber security measures, according to the White House announcement.
Nevertheless, the CEA report expects things to get better, as companies have identified the rising costs of dealing with cyberattacks, so they have started adding more money to their security budgets.
Η Morgan Stanley estimates that cyber spending will double from $56 billion in 2015 to $128 billion by 2020.
The amount will probably not be enough if companies do not change their tactics in dealing with crises. Of course, it is a bit difficult to believe that companies that are victims of attacks will come out to complain about what they have suffered, but in view of the above, it is probably necessary, especially among experts.
