Blog: Pete Loshin: Putting a Pricetag on Computer Crime

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Putting a Pricetag on Computer Crime

According to the FBI, and as reported on C|Net, "Dealing with viruses, spyware, PC theft and other computer-related crimes costs U.S. businesses a staggering $67.2 billion a year".

Wow. Here's what I found staggering, as I read the article:

Though the headlines tended to say "computer crime", the survey covered viruses, spyware, trojan horses, and other malware in addition to other computer-related crimes. So, if you could eliminate viruses and other malware from your systems, you could eliminate significant portions of these costs. With 98.4% of respondents claiming to use antivirus software, maybe they should reconsider how effective that stuff is?
A whopping 64% of respondents to the FBI's survey reported a financial loss in the preceding 12 months; but the statistical experts figured there would be a skewing of data: you'd be more likely to respond to the survey if you'd actually suffered a loss, so it would be absurd to claim that 64% of all US businesses had suffered financially the prior 12 months. So they applied a fudge factor and, somehow, determined that only 20% of US businesses had likely suffered financially. Where did that number come from?
On average, the total loss for the 12 month period in question was $24,000, so the FBI multiplied it all out to get the precise sum of $67.2 billion in losses for the 12 month period in question. Given the degree of imprecision in their original numbers, I'm staggered by the precision of their result.
How much of that loss, the greatest part of which is attributed to "virus-type" incidents, could have been mitigated by using Linux or other open source operating systems that are less susceptible to catastrophic losses due to viruses and other malware?

Given all that money the FBI says is being spent on this kind of criminal activity, I wonder when we'll start to see software companies that sell insecure products be held accountable.

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