Hackers and viruses to cost business $1.6tn

Hacking and computer viruses - ranging from Melissa to the Love Bug - will cost global businesses around $1.6tn this year, according to figures published this week.

John Leyden

Hacking and computer viruses - ranging from Melissa to the Love Bug - will cost global businesses around $1.6tn this year, according to figures published this week.

The survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) of 4900 IT professionals across 30 nations found that this year alone 39,363 human years of productivity will be lost worldwide because of viruses.

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In total, the bill this year to US firms with more than 1000 employees for viruses and computer hacking will amount to $266bn, or more than 2.5 per cent of the nation's gross domestic product. The price tag worldwide soars to $1.6tn, according to the PwC study.

However, Alex Shipp, antivirus technologist at ASP MessageLabs, said PwC's estimates are far too high, and joked that they probably represent lawyers' estimates of how much virus writers should be sued, rather than real economic impact.

"The real effects of viruses are not as much as everybody shouts about. That said, I know of two cases where clients of ours have picked up contracts because their competitors were hit by the Love Bug," said Shipp. "It's really difficult to estimate how much viruses cost."

Bruce Walton, corporate sales manager at antivirus company Command Software, pointed out that Microsoft was effectively closed for one day because of the Love Bug, but agreed that estimating the true cost of virus outbreaks is difficult.

John DiStefano, principal researcher on the study at Reality Research & Consulting, which assisted on the project, said the $266bn figure represents the impact of viruses on US businesses with more than 1000 employees, or about 50,000 firms.

"These are companies with infrastructures of IT professionals who are increasingly tracking the problem and can provide an accurate assessment of the scope of the issue. In reality, the true impact of viruses on US business, including medium-sized companies and small businesses, is much greater," said DiStefano.The key costs involved in correcting IT systems infected by a virus are found in lost productivity as a result of downtime for the computer systems, as well as lost sales opportunities, he added.

According to the study, commissioned by US magazine Information Week, technology professionals in the US this year will suffer system downtime of 3.24 per cent, while downtime rises to 3.28 per cent on a worldwide basis.

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Further reading

Anti-hacking squads could help corporates

Gartner has called on enterprises to consider establishing specialist internal anti-hacking teams who would have wide ranging powers to defend against internet attacks.

Malicious code targets Palm users

The discovery of malicious code affecting Palm devices has shown that handhelds as well as PCs are potentially vulnerable to virus infection.

Bug Watch: how to deal with hoax viruses

Sophos's 24-hour technical support team has seen a notable increase in virus hoaxes lately. Not only are more hoaxes being reported but the new ones also seem to be becoming increasingly far fetched. Yet, no matter how bizarre and improbable they sound, people still fall for them.

Bug Watch: a real can of worms

Watch where you surf and continue to beware of the Love Bug, says Graham Cluely, this week's expert giving advice in vnunet.com's Bug Watch column.

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