Cybercrime has been a growing problem around the world for decades now, but many would argue that it has never been worse than in the last several years.

As technology continues to advance and propose new solutions, online criminals are evolving as well, and so are their methods.

Recent statistics have revealed new trends, but also a severe lack of security measures at many of the world’s companies.

Unfortunately, this leaves the companies’ and your data unsecured, and therefore, attractive to hackers.

Since awareness is one of the first steps in securing vulnerable data, here are our top 10 cybercrime stats for 2020 and beyond.

1. Cybercrime costs to hit $6 trillion per year by 2021

One of the biggest problems with Cybercrime – apart from data theft, of course – is the fact that it is very financially damaging.

Businesses already spend millions of dollars for protection from these attacks, but this is often not enough, and researchers predict that the cost of cyberattacks is to hit $6 trillion per year by 2021 (Source: CyberSecurity Ventures).

If this comes to pass, cyberattacks would officially become more costly than natural disasters, and more profitable than the illegal drug trade.

It would also mean that the cost of malicious attacks would be double from what it was in 2015.

2. Average business malware attack cost is at $2.6 million

To truly understand how costly cyberattacks can be, let’s just say that statistics from 2018 state that, on average, malicious attacks tend to cost $2.6 million per organization that has been hit by an attack (Source: Accenture).

This puts malware at the top of the list of the most financially damaging threats around the world.

However, it is also worth noting that the cost of these attacks is rising every year. The cost of $2.6 million per organization in 2018 is $200,000 larger than what it was in 2017 ($2.4 million per organization)

3. Financial loss reached a total of $2.7 billion

The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that the total economic loss due to cybercrime in 2018 exceeded $2.7 billion (Source: FBI).

Back in 2000, the Bureau established the Internet Crime Complaint Center, to provide victims of cyberattacks with a way to quickly and easily report attacks.

In 2018, the number of reports grew to 351,937. The majority of the crimes that were reported during this year revolved around investment scams, romance fraud, and business email compromises.

4. The banking industry is the prime target

As you are probably aware, online criminals are usually motivated by the idea of making easy money.

This is why most of the attacks revolve around stealing information that would allow hackers to take money, or steal information that can later be sold on the dark web.

With that in mind, it is not surprising that the banking industry is the most targeted in the world.

Statistics from 2018 claim that an average cost to the banking industry against malicious activity grew from $16.55 million in 2017 to $18.37 million in 2018 (Source: Asset Finance International).

The cost is likely going to keep rising with each new year.

5. Global spending on online security measures will exceed $1 trillion

With cybercrime on a continuous rise, banks, companies, and even entire countries are continually investing in security.

So much so that researchers believe that global spending on online security measures will likely go above $1 trillion per year over the next two years (Source: CSO).

Security researchers are continually finding new threats, which leads to developing new solutions.

Organizations are then forced to pay significant amounts of money to implement these solutions and prevent criminals from successfully targeting them.

While this does not always stop the attackers, firms and banks have no alternative than to spend vast quantities of money on trying to secure their businesses and clients.

6. Hackers attack every 39 seconds in the US

According to one study, conducted by the Clark School at the University of Maryland, hackers are undertaking a new attack every 39 seconds, on average (Source: University of Maryland).

This would mean that there are well over 800,000 attacks per year, many of which are successful due to the use of non-secure login credentials.

Another statistic from 2018 indicates that there were 1244 data breaches during this year, which is lower than during 2017.

However, the number of records breaches has grown, as researchers assessed that 446.52 million records were exposed to online criminals in 2018, while only 197.61 million were exposed in 2017.

7. Almost half of the global data breaches will be focused in the US

According to security researchers, the future of cyberattacks does not look good for the US.

The statistics clearly show that the number of attacks is growing each year, with attacks becoming more damaging and resulting in greater amounts of stolen money and data.

However, researchers also predict that hackers from around the world are shifting their focus towards the US.

Around 33 billion records are expected to be stolen around the world in 2023, which would mean a 175% increase from 2018, when 12 billion records were compromised, in total (Source: Juniper Research).

However, 50% of such attacks are likely to target the US in 2023.

8. Western nations are not ready to handle online threats

It is widely known that hackers can and will target anyone, at any time, and for any reason.

It is enough that they think that their victims may have something important or valuable on their devices in order for them to try.

Many would even conduct attacks just because they can, not expecting anything of value at all, and just collecting all the data they can get their hands on.

As many as 20% of adults in the UK think they’ve been the victim of a theft of data or a hack but only 38% trust the government and law enforcement to keep them safe (Source: Nominet).

9. Enterprises are moving to the cloud due to security concerns

Cloud technology has been a relatively big topic in recent years due to increased security when compared to older alternatives, and researchers predicted that 83% of enterprise workloads would move to cloud in 2020.

Back in 2018, around 66% of IT professionals stated that they plan to adopt enterprise cloud computing technology due to security concerns.

But Cloud computing also brings its own security pitfalls as Gartner reveal that 99% of security issues will lie with the customer by 2025 (Source: Gartner).

10. Cryptojacking on the rise

Finally, there is the matter of cryptojacking – a method of mining cryptocurrencies by hijacking victims’ devices and using their computing power and other resources.

The cryptocurrency trend saw a lot of attention due to price surges in 2017.

While the prices dropped by over 90% for most coins in the following year, that did not stop hackers from arriving in the crypto industry.

McAfee reports that cryptojacking grew 4000% in a single year (Source: McAfee).

Summary

The online world is more dangerous than ever, with threats around every corner.

Online criminals are using every opportunity they can find to steal other people’s funds, information, sensitive data, or anything else that they can get their hands on.

While security researchers are doing all in their power to keep up with online criminals and provide solutions, these statistics show that the cost and frequency of attacks are on the rise.