Cybercrime Costs Global Economy $500Bln

The global economy loses on average $500 billion to cybercrime, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The global economy loses on average $500 billion to cybercrime, with growing costs for the Russian economy, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Friday.

"The global cost of cybercrime is estimated at around half a trillion dollars. The exact figure is hard to assess because not all thefts are reported," Medvedev said at a government meeting devoted to cybersecurity. In Russia, losses associated with this kind of crime are on the rise," he said, adding that scammers were increasingly using online banking services to illegally access accounts.

Russian government has been working together with the nation’s central bank to set up monitoring centers that react to cyberattacks on online banking services. Medvedev said there was also a project in the making to set cybersecurity standards for Russia’s banking industry.