Cybercrime worth $1.5 trillion a year: Thales report

Cybercrime worth $1.5 trillion a year: Thales report

With revenues estimated up to $1.5 trillion a year - meaning 1.5 times more income (as an annual average) than counterfeiting, and 2.8 times more than the illegal drugs trade -cybercrime is one the most dangerous threats today facing companies, organisations and institutions.

In the cybercrime edition of its CyberThreat Handbook, Thales lays bare the threats posed by a global network of well-organised cybercriminals.

Thales says 60 per cent of these huge revenues come from illegal online markets, 30 per cent from the theft of intellectual property and trade secrets and only 0.07 per cent from ransomware which however does the most damage.

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Interactions and permanent movements unite organised cybercrime and bring it to life, the report says. By interacting as