What are the effects of cyber-crime on the internet economy? essay sample

Cybercrime is an invisible but tangible threat to businesses and governments. Most cyberattacks remain unreported as the legislation towards cybersecurity is still weak in many countries. In fact, leading economies of the world bear the heaviest losses of cybercrimes due to the high use of the internet. But the same fate awaits developing nations as well. Though, companies better know how to protect their patents, funds, and transactions, many of them regularly lose data and money due to frequent cyberattacks. Running businesses online becomes riskier with every year as schemes of internet piracy and fraud become more and more cunning.

Though costs of stolen intellectual property and other data are sometimes difficult to estimate, hackers’ attacks clearly disrupt the normal functioning of online industries. The Internet economy annually brings estimated $2 to 3 trillion in revenue. Studies on digital crimes state that cybercriminals, in general, steal about 15 – 20 percent of that sum. It means lower salaries, job loss, poor reinvestment, and fewer taxes paid to the government. Certainly, most medium and large businesses are digitally keen, therefore, unlikely to bankrupt after being hacked. But for many countries, cybercrime costs more than 2% of their GDP which is a tangible loss for the offline world.

Cybercrimes bring low cybersecurity that directly cuts investments and output of the online industry. Theft of intellectual property can make companies incompatible or sweep them away from the market. Many consumers still beware online transactions preventing online industries from generating a greater revenue. Anyway, intangible online piracy causes quite tangible losses in the offline world.