Technology

Is Cybercrime Indeed as Harmful as we Believe?

The digital landscape is constantly evolving and, as a result, we’re all a lot more interconnected than we used to be 20 years ago. We shop online, communicate online, find entertainment online, and use a variety of online services.

Is Cybercrime Indeed as Harmful as we Believe?
Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

It’s all very convenient, but there is a downside to all this connectivity – there are plenty of hackers out there waiting to pounce on the unprepared. Online, everyone’s fair game, even big companies like Equifax and Yahoo.

As you’ll see from the infographic below prepared by our friends from TechJury, hackers have exposed data on some of the biggest sites in the world.

On average, a cyber attack on a large firm in the United Kingdom costs around £36,000. In the United States, personal attacks cost consumers $16 billion in 2016. Want an even more sobering statistic? Cybercrime is expected to pass the £2 trillion mark in 2019.

So it’s not funny money we’re talking about here; we’re talking about some serious costs. But it’s not just the financial cost that should be taken into account. At a personal level, these attacks could have quite serious consequences.

It might be someone exposing your personal pictures online. Or it could be identity theft, which can lead to a whole lot of misery for you. It can take years to clear your credit record after such a scenario. In the meantime, you’ll have no access to credit, will have to deal with debt collectors, and may even find it difficult to get a job.

For a business, the consequences can be equally dire. Businesses face severe reputational risks, and many small companies close down completely within six months of the attack. They might also face fines if it’s found that they haven’t taken adequate security measures against the attack and may also face civil action.

So is cybercrime really as bad as it’s made out to be? No, it’s actually a lot worse. Not all attacks are reported, and some slip under the radar completely. Need more convincing? Check out the infographic below for all the facts and figures.   

Farhan Abro

Hello! My name is Farhan Abro, and I'm based here in Islamabad. My journey in Pakistan's digital media really kicked off when I founded INCPak back in 2012. We built it from the ground up, driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, to be a trusted voice for independent journalism. But while media is a big part of who I am, I'm also shaped by a fascinating mix of other passions. I'm deeply into automotive, which gives me a technical edge, but I also find my artistic expression through landscape photography and music. And I'm always diving into the exciting world of Artificial Intelligence. Bringing all these different worlds together the technical, the creative, the journalistic, and the entrepreneurial—it really colors how I see things and approach every project. It gives me a distinct perspective that I try to bring to everything I share

Related Articles

Back to top button