The global indicator 'Estimated Cost of Cybercrime' in the cybersecurity market was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 6.4 trillion U.S. dollars (+69.41 percent). After the eleventh consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach 15.63 trillion U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the indicator 'Estimated Cost of Cybercrime' of the cybersecurity market was continuously increasing over the past years. Ransomware and manufacturing industry Cyberattacks remain a significant challenge for organizations worldwide, sectors such as manufacturing, finance, and insurance were the most affected by these attacks. Among the various types of cyber threats, ransomware was the most frequently detected, accounting for around 70 percent of all incidents. The manufacturing industry, in particular, faced the highest number of ransomware attacks, making it the most targeted sector globally. Cybersecurity awareness and investments Organizations worldwide became increasingly aware of the dangers posed by cyberattacks, approximately 40 percent of internet users became familiar terms such as with "ransomware." In response to these threats, companies invested more in cybersecurity. In 2024, the average annual increase in IT security budgets was expected to reach 5.7 percent. In fact, for companies worldwide, enhancing the cyber resilience of their cybersecurity teams was the top spending priority in 2023.

As of September 2024, almost 30 percent of cyber incidents detected in the past 12 months were hacking incidents. A further 28.7 percent were incidents of misuse, and 15.2 percent of detections revealed malware attacks.

In 2023, manufacturing saw the highest share of cyberattacks among the leading industries worldwide. During the examined year, manufacturing companies encountered nearly a quarter of the total cyberattacks. Finance and insurance organizations followed, with around 18 percent. Professional, business, and consumer services ranked third, with 15.4 percent of reported cyberattacks. Healthcare industry and cyberattacks
The healthcare industry is considered one of the most vulnerable sectors to cybercrime. Between October 2021 and September 2022, healthcare organizations worldwide saw various cyberattacks, mostly network and application, as well as malware. Additionally, this sector had the highest average data breach cost throughout recent years, amounting to nearly 11 million U.S. dollars. IT perspective and prevention
With recent technology developments, cybersecurity is crucial to an organization’s success. Realizing this, companies have been gradually increasing cybersecurity investments. Thus, in 2024, the cybersecurity budget worldwide was forecast to increase to nearly 283 billion U.S. dollars. Roughly nine in ten board directors of companies worldwide in professional services and media and entertainment industries say they expect an increase in the cybersecurity budget.

A 2023 survey among board members of worldwide organizations showed that 36 percent are concerned that their internal data will become public due to a cyber attack. Respondents also stated that reputational damage and disruption to operations were among the most concerning outcomes a cyber attack could have on their organization. In an earlier survey, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) of worldwide organizations mentioned significant downtime as the most concerning consequence of a material cyberattack.

Between November 2022 and October 2023, over 30 thousand cybercrime incidents were detected worldwide. Of this total, over 900 cases involved small companies. The organizations in the public administration sector were the most affected among the industries researched, with reported 12,217 cybercrime cases. The finance sector ranked second, while the professional sector followed, with over 2,500 incidents in each industry.

In 2023, ransomware was the most frequently detected cyberattack worldwide, with around 70 percent of all detected cyberattacks. Network breaches ranked second, with almost 19 percent of the detections. Although less frequently, data exfiltration was also among the detected cyberattacks.

In 2023, the monetary damage caused by cybercrime reported to the United States' Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) saw a year-over-year increase of around 21 percent, amounting to a historical peak of 12.5 billion U.S. dollars. Cybercrime in the U.S. Cybercrime continues to be one of the biggest challenges for governments around the world. In the United States, phishing and personal data breaches were among the most reported categories of cybercrime in 2022, with over 300 thousand people falling victim to phishing attacks. Additionally, data breaches cost the U.S. organizations over nine million U.S. dollars on average as of January 2023. Identity theft is a serious issue in the U.S. Along with other reported online crimes, identity theft was a prevalent issue that affected millions of people in the United States. The country ranked second globally in reported cases of identity theft, with an estimated 13.5 million Americans falling victim to this crime. As a result, millions of users had their lives turned upside down. In January 2023, 43 percent of identity theft victims reported wasting their time resolving issues, while 33 percent had no choice but to freeze their credit cards. Furthermore, sometimes threat actors targeted seniors, as in 2022, more than 4800 individuals over 60 reported being victims of identity theft.

The largest reported data leakage as of January 2024 was the Cam4 data breach in March 2020, which exposed more than 10 billion data records. The second-largest data breach in history so far, the Yahoo data breach, occurred in 2013. The company initially reported about one billion exposed data records, but after an investigation, the company updated the number, revealing that three billion accounts were affected. The National Public Data Breach was announced in August 2024. The incident became public when personally identifiable information of individuals became available for sale on the dark web. Overall, the security professionals estimate the leakage of nearly three billion personal records. The next significant data leakage was the March 2018 security breach of India's national ID database, Aadhaar, with over 1.1 billion records exposed. This included biometric information such as identification numbers and fingerprint scans, which could be used to open bank accounts and receive financial aid, among other government services.

Cybercrime - the dark side of digitalization As the world continues its journey into the digital age, corporations and governments across the globe have been increasing their reliance on technology to collect, analyze and store personal data. This, in turn, has led to a rise in the number of cyber crimes, ranging from minor breaches to global-scale attacks impacting billions of users – such as in the case of Yahoo. Within the U.S. alone, 1802 cases of data compromise were reported in 2022. This was a marked increase from the 447 cases reported a decade prior. The high price of data protection As of 2022, the average cost of a single data breach across all industries worldwide stood at around 4.35 million U.S. dollars. This was found to be most costly in the healthcare sector, with each leak reported to have cost the affected party a hefty 10.1 million U.S. dollars. The financial segment followed closely behind. Here, each breach resulted in a loss of approximately 6 million U.S. dollars - 1.5 million more than the global average.

Cyber attacks on businesses are becoming more frequent, targeted, and complex. The effects of a cyber attack go well beyond the direct financial consequences. In 2024, 47 percent of respondents indicated greater difficulty in attracting new customers as the main consequence of cyber attacks.

In 2023, the most common type of cyber crime reported to the United States internet Crime Complaint Center was phishing and spoofing, affecting approximately 298 thousand individuals. In addition, over 55 thousand cases of personal data breaches cases were reported to the IC3 during that year. Dynamic of phishing attacks Over the past few years, phishing attacks have increased significantly. In 2023, almost 300 thousand individuals fell victim to such attacks. The highest number of phishing scam victims since 2018 was recorded in 2021, approximately 324 thousand.Phishing attacks can take many shapes. Bulk phishing, smishing, and business e-mail compromise (BEC) are the most common types. In 2023, 76 percent of the surveyed worldwide organizations reported encountering bulk phishing attacks, while roughly three in four were targeted by smishing scams. Impact of phishing attacks Among the most targeted industries by cybercriminals are healthcare, financial, manufacturing, and education institutions. An observation carried out in the first quarter of 2023 found that social media was most likely to encounter phishing attacks. According to the reports, almost a quarter of them stated being targeted by a phishing scam in the measured period. Very often, phishing e-mails contain a crucial risk for the organization. Almost three in ten worldwide organizations that have experienced phishing attacks suffered from a customer or a client data breach as a consequence. Phishing scams that delivered ransomware infections were also common for the surveyed organizations.

In 2022, around four in ten internet users worldwide have ever experienced cybercrime. Based on a survey conducted between November and December 2022, internet users in India were most likely to have fallen victim to cybercrime, as nearly 70 percent of respondents claimed to have ever experienced cybercrime. The United States ranked second, with almost half of the respondents, 49 percent, saying they had experienced internet crime.

In 2023, there were 3,348 reported cyber incidents in the financial industry worldwide, up from 1,829 in the preceding year. Coherently, the number of data breaches increased within the last two examined years, going from 690 in 2021 to 1,115 in 2023. Overall, 2023 saw the most significant number of cyber incidents since 2013.

During the third quarter of 2024, data breaches exposed more than 422 million records worldwide. Since the first quarter of 2020, the highest number of data records were exposed in the first quarter of 202, more than 818 million data sets. Data breaches remain among the biggest concerns of company leaders worldwide. The most common causes of sensitive information loss were operating system vulnerabilities on endpoint devices. Which industries see the most data breaches? Meanwhile, certain conditions make some industry sectors more prone to data breaches than others. According to the latest observations, the public administration experienced the highest number of data breaches between 2021 and 2022. The industry saw 495 reported data breach incidents with confirmed data loss. The second were financial institutions, with 421 data breach cases, followed by healthcare providers. Data breach cost Data breach incidents have various consequences, the most common impact being financial losses and business disruptions. As of 2023, the average data breach cost across businesses worldwide was 4.45 million U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, a leaked data record cost about 165 U.S. dollars. The United States saw the highest average breach cost globally, at 9.48 million U.S. dollars.

A January 2023 survey of IT and cybersecurity decision-makers of companies across North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia revealed some interesting perspectives. First, it found that over half of the respondents, 53 percent, believed that hackers might use ChatGPT to craft more believable and legitimate-sounding phishing e-mails. A further 49 percent thought that the AI tool would help less experienced hackers improve their technical knowledge and develop their skills, as well as for spreading misinformation.

In 2023, nearly nine million cases of phishing scams were registered worldwide, making it the most frequently reported type of cybercrime. Personal data breach ranked second, with 1.66 million incidents, followed by 1.5 million non-payment/non-delivery cases.

As of 2024, the average cost of a data breach in the United States amounted to 9.36 million U.S. dollars, down from 9.48 million U.S. dollars in the previous year. The global average cost per data breach was 4.88 million U.S. dollars in 2024. Cost of a data breach in different countries worldwide Data breaches impose a big threat for organizations globally. The monetary damage caused by data breaches has increased in many markets in the past decade. In 2023, Canada followed the U.S. by data breach costs, with an average of 5.13 million U.S. dollars. Since 2019, the average monetary damage caused by loss of sensitive information in Canada has increased notably. In the United Kingdom, the average cost of a data breach in 2024 amounted to around 4.53 million U.S. dollars, while in Germany it stood at 5.31 million U.S. dollars. The cost of data breach by industry and segment Data breach costs vary depending on the industry and segment. For the fourth consecutive year, the global healthcare sector registered the highest costs of data breach, which in 2024 amounted to about nine million U.S. dollars. Financial institutions ranked second, with an average cost of six million U.S. dollars for a data breach. Detection and escalation was the costliest segment in data breaches worldwide, with 1.63 U.S. dollars on average. The cost for lost business ranked second, while response following a breach came across as the third-costliest segment.

Between 2010 and 2023, the worldwide automotive industry saw many cyber-related challenges. The industry's most common outcome of cyber crime was service and business disruption, such as delays or halts in production, caused by a cyber attack, which occurred 42 percent of the time of a cyber incident. Data and privacy breach was the second-most common impact of cyber attacks, with 22 percent of the total effects. Fraud and Vehicle theft were other typical outcomes of cybercrime in the automotive industry.

As of February 2024, the United States ranked first by the average cost of a data breach, 9.36 million U.S. dollars. The average cost of data breaches in the Middle East is 8.75 million U.S. dollars. Benelux followed in the ranking, with 5.9 million U.S. dollars. In the measured period, the global average data breach cost was 4.88 million U.S. dollars. Phishing scams in the U.S. Breached data often ends up in the hands of threat actors who use it for malicious purposes, including online scams. Phishing continues to be a major threat in North America, particularly on smartphones. In the second quarter of 2023, the region recorded the highest number of phishing and malicious attack attempts globally. The United States was particularly affected, with 45 percent of U.S. citizens reporting being targeted by scam texts, e-mails, and calls on a daily basis. Additionally, phishing and spoofing were the most common types of cybercrime, impacting 298 thousand individuals in 2023. These attacks led to financial losses, with U.S. victims reporting nearly 20 billion U.S. dollars in damages throughout the year. U.S. users and data privacy Despite only 20 percent of internet users in the United States being highly knowledgeable about data privacy and cybersecurity, a significant portion of users demonstrated caution and awareness in protecting their information. In fact, over half of surveyed U.S. users reported being somewhat confident in knowing the right steps to take in the event of a cyberattack. Furthermore, 43 percent of U.S. users actively decline cookies on websites, reflecting their increasing concern for data protection. Many respondents also take additional steps to safeguard their digital privacy, such as limiting or avoiding clicking on ads as well as not answering phone calls due to cybersecurity risks.

As of February 2024, the global average cost per data breach amounted to 4.88 million U.S. dollars, an increase from 4.45 million U.S. dollars in the previous year. The average cost of a data breach varied across sectors, with the highest average cost in the healthcare industry.

As of January 2025, the most significant data privacy violation fine worldwide was for social media giant Meta. In May 2023, the Data Protection Commission (DPC) of Ireland decided to fine the company with 1.2 billion euros or 1.3 billion U.S. dollars. The Chinese vehicle-for rent company Didi Global ranked second. In July 2022, China's data privacy regulator fined the company 8.026 billion Chinese yuan, or 1.19 billion U.S. dollars. The 2021 Amazon fine issued by Luxembourg's data privacy regulation authorities was 877 million U.S. dollars and was the third-biggest data breach fine as of the measured month. The 2019 fine of 575 million U.S. dollars to Equifax followed. In this incident, because of unpatched vulnerabilities, nearly 150 million people were affected, which caused the American consumer credit reporting agency to pay at least 575 million U.S. dollars.