It’s extremely difficult to put an exact number on how much individuals and companies are losing each and every day due to cybercrimes, which can range from intellectual property theft to cyber espionage, among other activities. Direct ‘stealing’ of data and personal information is what we usually hear about in the press, but the root of the problem goes a lot deeper.
According to the report, cybercrimes can destroy a company’s image, jeopardize national security, and leave hundreds of thousands of people jobless. The digital landscape is as much a part of the real world as the physical landscape is to the information super highway. Loss in export resulting from intellectual property theft and malicious cyber activities is being correlated with job loss for real individuals.
The report estimates that for every $1 billion in loss of export, 5,080 jobs are lost. So if global economic losses are in the range of several hundred billion dollars, we can guess as to how much that can influence the global job market.
Companies based in countries like the U.S. are, consequently, outsourcing jobs partly due to the fact that they are incurring losses due to cybercrimes. Therefore, domestic unemployment due to labor outsourcing isn’t just about increasing profit, but also because some companies simply can’t stay afloat if they maintain high wage while taking hits every day from cybercrimes.
“If a good portion of these jobs were high-end manufacturing jobs that moved overseas because of intellectual property losses, the effects could be more wide ranging,” said James Lewis, co-author of the report.
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