Allocate greater funds for countering cyber crime, reduce spending on antivirus solutions
In a forthcoming report, a team of academics, including Ross Anderson from Cambridge University, have concluded that the UK's resources would be better spent on policing cyber crime, despite some police forces' perception that it would be too difficult. The report, titled "Measuring the Cost of Cybercrime," will be presented on June 25 at the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security in Berlin, Germany.
The report challenges the common belief that preventing cyber crime is more cost-effective than dealing with it. It argues that locking up cyber criminals would be far more effective than telling the public to fit an anti-phishing toolbar or purchase antivirus software.
The report's estimates for the cost of "genuine" cybercrime total $170 million, although the authors acknowledge that these figures are based on "extremely rough estimates." The report does not include the cost of lost intellectual property in its calculations due to a lack of reliable evidence on industrial cyber-espionage and extortion.
One example given in the report is spam emails, which earn criminals little but cost a lot of money to prevent. The botnet behind a third of the spam sent in 2010 earned its owners around $2.7 million, while worldwide expenditures on spam prevention probably exceeded a billion dollars.
The costs of antivirus and patching (mostly to businesses) are also significant components of the costs of cyber crime. The clean-up costs faced by users (personal or corporate) are the largest single component of the costs of cyber crime.
The report was conducted on request by the Ministry of Defence in response to a report backed by BAE Detica estimating the total cost of cybercrime to the UK economy at £29 billion. However, the new report does not include this figure in its calculations, as much of Detica's figure was based on the lost value of intellectual property stolen from UK businesses.
The report suggests that a small number of gangs lie behind many incidents of cybercrime. While the authors of the report are not identified in the provided search results, the report's findings are expected to cause a stir in the cybersecurity community.
In conclusion, the report argues that the UK's money would be better spent on tackling cyber criminals rather than on security precautions. While the direct costs of cybercrime may seem modest, the indirect costs and defense costs are very substantial. The report serves as a call to action for policymakers and cybersecurity professionals to rethink their strategies and prioritise the fight against cyber crime.
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