Businesses believe cybercrime costs have overtaken physical crimes

A recently completed survey by IBM indicates that the majority of businesses believe that cybercrime costs have overtaken costs from physical crimes. Based on interviews with 601 chief information officers, 57% of US companies and 58% of foreign companies feel that cybercrime has become more costly than physical crimes.

The majority of US companies were confident that they could withstand a cyberattack and 83% of the US companies polled believed that they had good protection, but 73% of them plan on upgrading their virus protection and 69% want to upgrade their firewalls. International companies were less confident with 53% of them saying they had adequate protection.

Corporations today have to contend with several compliance laws including Sarbannes-Oxley and the Patriot Act. So it’s no surprise the 71% of finance companies - companies who are often tasked to handle compliance for their clients - believe that cybercrime is more costly than physical crime. In contrast, retail companies, who have traditionally faced shoplifting and internal theft, still believe physical crime has a greater cost impact.