Dive Brief:
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Cyberattacks in the U.S. could soon cost as much as $121 billion per year, reports Lloyd's of London, according to The Next Web.
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Cyberattacks globally cost businesses about $450 billion last year, according to Lloyd's research partner Cyence. These costs are surpassing that of natural disasters, like Hurricane Katrina, which had an estimated $108 billion in damages.
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A recent three-week Internet outage in Somalia cost an estimated $10 million daily.
Dive Insight:
The more the world relies on digital services, the more vulnerable it is to cyber attacks. Recent global cybersecurity attacks like WannaCry and the Petya strands have demonstrated that an attack on a global scale is possible.
Now it seems it could only be a matter of time before such an event occurs, and the costs could be staggering.
Such attacks are costly not only from a financial perspective, but also from a PR angle. Investments in restructuring cybersecurity and things like cyber insurance could prevent or at the very least ease an attack's impact.
Education is also an important component of protecting a company. Companies that take the time to train computer users how to identify common hacker scams and fraud techniques find the investment usually pays off.
