Cybercrime Getting Costlier As it Goes Global

In just four decades’ time, cybercrime has grown from an annoyance to one of the world’s fastest-growing and most costly criminal problems. And with the onset of globalized business, it’s only getting worse. According to the results of the latest international annual study by Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), which partnered with the Ponemon Institute, an independent cybersecurity research group, the average annualized cost of cybercrime committed globally against a sample of U.S.-based organizations was $12.7 million -- an increase of nearly 100 percent compared to the first study five years ago.