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CYBER CRIME COST CANADIANS $5.5 BILLION IN 2010

Posted on September 8, 2011

Hackers hit the wallets of Canadians rather hard last year, according to a study released by Symantec Corp. on Wednesday.

The 2011 Norton Cybercrime Report found more than 7.3 million Canadian Internet users fell victim to a cyber attack of some kind in 2010, costing them $840-million in direct financial losses plus another $4.7-billion in lost productivity.

That breaks down to about 14 Canadians being targeted every minute, or about two dozen by the time you finish reading this post.

Worldwide, more than 430 million adults were victimized at a cost of US$388-billion in direct and indirect losses, or US$100-billion more than the combined value of the global marijuana, cocaine and heroin black markets combined, said the report, which was based on responses from about 12,000 people spread across 24 countries.

As well, more than one in three Canadian respondents (35%) said they lack up-to-date security software.

"Cybercrime is much more prevalent than people realize," Adam Palmer, Norton's lead cyber security advisor, said in a release. "Over the past 12 months, three times as many adults surveyed have suffered from online crime versus offline crime, yet less than a third of respondents think they are more likely to become a victim of cybercrime than physical world crime in the next year."

Men aged between 18 and 31 who access the Internet from their mobile device were found to be the most likely victims, with fully 80% of all respondents saying they have been targeted by computer hackers in their lifetime.

Wednesday's release represents the first time the annual study has attempted to calculate the financial cost of cyber crime.

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