Businesses risk losing $1tr due to cybercrime

Davos: Businesses risk losing over $1 trillion (Dh3.678 trillion) from loss or theft of data and other cybercrime, according to a study released yesterday by security technology firm McAfee Inc.

The California-based company launched the survey after detecting a rapid acceleration of malicious software, or "malware", last year, CEO David DeWalt told Reuters. Malware increased by 400 per cent in 2008, he said.

"This was a very insidious type of malware that was designed either to steal your data, steal your identity, steal your money, and in many cases the scale as well as the sophistication was very alarming," DeWalt said in an interview at the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The survey of 800 companies in eight countries showed that 80 per cent of malware aimed to make a financial gain, in contrast to traditional viruses and worms which just had nuisance value.

In the survey, 42 per cent of companies said that laid-off employees were the single biggest threat to their data security.