Modern criminals are rapidly adopting new technologies. Back in 2015, global cybercrime costs amounted to $325 million, $5 billion in 2017, $8 billion in 2018, and $11.5 billion in 2019. Last year, losses totaled already $20 billion.
Cybersecurity Ventures, the world's leading researcher, expects cybercrime to increase exponentially in the future. By 2031, cybercrime is predicted to inflict damages worth $256 billion, which is 30 times more than the initial cost of Mars colonization. Notably, SpaceX Elon Musk has estimated that it would cost as much as $6 billion dollars to colonize the planet.
Cybercryme is flourishing due to ineffective law enforcement efforts. On top of that, the number of hacker groups is growing along with the number of cyber crimes as well as damages. Some experts question the accuracy of Cybersecurity Ventures estimates. They believe that Cybersecurity Ventures has underestimated the fact that companies could cover up part of their losses. Therefore, the damages could be even higher.
Earlier, Colonial Pipeline, the largest pipeline operator in the United States, paid $4.4 million dollar ransom to hacker group DarkSide. Later, the company returned part of the ransomware money owing to the US law enforcement authorities. They were able to identify a virtual currency wallet that the DarkSide hackers used to collect payment from Colonial Pipeline.
