Cyberattacks Grown in Last 2 Years During Pandemic, Global Cost Topped $6 Billion in 2021: Italian Defence Firm

The global cost of cybercrime topped $6 trillion (roughly Rs. 4,63,52,100 crore) last year, as the coronavirus pandemic caused online activity to soar, the head of Italian defence, security and aerospace giant Leonardo said Tuesday.

"New cybersecurity threats over the last two years have been a 'collateral damage' of the COVID-19 pandemic and the acceleration of digitalisation it induced," Alessandro Profumo said at the opening of the Cybertech Europe 2022 conference in Rome."

Cyberattacks have grown in number, sophistication and impact — in 2021 the global cost of cybercrime exceeded $6 trillion. "The figures came from Clusit, the Italian association for information security, and compare to an estimate of losses of $1 trillion (roughly Rs. 77,25,550 crore) in 2020.

One fifth of the total attacks was directed at Europe, Profumo said, but the continent lacked at least 200,000 cybersecurity professionals.

Speaking to foreign journalists in Rome last month, he said cybersecurity issues had increased following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "We are noticing additional pressure," said the boss of Leonardo, which has a specialised branch dedicated to cybersecurity.

The statement from Italian defence firm comes a day after the European Union (EU), the UK and the US accused Russia to be behind a series of cyberattacks linked with its conflict with Ukraine earlier this year with wide-ranging impact across Europe.

The western allies said the most recent attack was on the communications company Viasat in Ukraine, which had a wider impact across the European continent, disrupting wind farms and internet users in central Europe. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) assesses that the Russian Military Intelligence was “almost certainly” involved in the January 13 defacements of Ukrainian government websites and the deployment of a destructive malware called Whispergate.

“This is clear and shocking evidence of a deliberate and malicious attack by Russia against Ukraine which had significant consequences on ordinary people and businesses in Ukraine and across Europe,” said UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.