Cybercrime could cost the world over $6 trillion annually by 2021

"Cybercriminal activity is one of the biggest challenges that humanity will face in the next two decades", according to a 2019 report. Conducted by Cybersecurity Ventures and sponsored by Herjavec Group, the research also predicts that cybercrime will cost the world over $6 trillion annually by 2021.

The state of cybercrime

Today, cyber attacks are increasingly growing in size, complexity, and frequency. As a result, organisations across the world are suffering from lost profits, reduced productivity, and data destruction.

“This dramatic rise (in damage costs) only reinforces the sharp increase in the number of organisations unprepared for a cyber attack,” Robert Herjavec, founder and CEO at Herjavec Group commented. With the widespread adoption of IoT, however, this number will undoubtedly rise.

In fact, Intel expects that there will be 200 billion IoT objects by 2020 alone. Nevertheless, a new study from Gemalto found that almost half of businesses cannot detect if one of their IoT devices suffers a breach.

Among those companies struggling the most with IoT adoption, 25% reported IoT-related losses of at least $34 million in the last two years. With more internet-enabled devices than ever, enterprises have never been so vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Spending on security to increase

Cybercrime is causing "unprecedented damage" to both private and public enterprises, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. As a result, IT security spending is increasing at a rapid rate.

Indeed, Grand View Research expects the IoT security market to reach $9.88 billion by 2025. Meanwhile, Gartner forecasts worldwide spending on information security products and services to reach $124 billion this year.

Cybersecurity Ventures also predicts global spending on cybersecurity products and services will exceed $1 trillion cumulatively from 2017 to 2021. On the whole, the research anticipates the cybersecurity market to grow 12-15% year-over-year through 2021.

Looking forward

Looking to the future, Roger Grimes, a Computer Security Columnist for Infoworld, predicts that every company will experience a hack. In effect, cybercrime will infiltrate private and public enterprises - regardless of size or industry.

According to the report, nearly half of all cyber attacks target small businesses. Although a "legion of small businesses woke up to the reality that they are under cyber attack" this year, the number of attacked companies will undoubtedly rise.

Finally, the report expects consumers to pay more attention to security this year following a number of high-profile data breaches. As a consequence, the cybersecurity market could benefit from more people buying their first security product.

How can companies defend against hackers with evolving tactics? We spoke to Rajarshi Gupta, Head of AI at Avast Security, to find out