The Rise and Cost of Cybercrime and the Future of Cybersecurity

The rise of cybercrime over the past 20 years has been dramatic. Assessments vary but according to one of the smaller estimates, the global cost of cybercrime is expected to cost $10.5 trillion per year by 2025. This would represent a crime bigger than the global trade in the illegal drug market.

At the end of 2021, 4.9 billion people had online access, over 60% of the world’s population, and the internet has an estimated one million new users every day. As online users continue to grow, potential opportunities for cybercriminals also increase, and more sophisticated techniques are also becoming the norm. In addition, the increase in remote working during the pandemic lead to weaknesses being exposed in cloud computing and in many business networks, which were then attacked by cybercriminals. According to Cybercrime Magazine, small-to-midsize businesses account for more than half of all cyberattacks, and 60 percent of them go out of business within six months of falling victim to a data breach or hack.

So what is the real future of Cybersecurity?

Research suggests the most common and damaging cybercrimes that businesses face are,