Business History Books » Small Business Consulting » Economic Impact of Viruses
Economic Impact of Viruses
Question:
speaking as an economist (thank you VERY MUCH, mr. shaw – i never liked your work either <grin>), there is much merit to what has been written below – although it lacks an interpretive slant. one major issue that is not figured into the cost of cyberterrorism is the ongoing costs of maintaining a necessary defence to prevent intrusion of susceptible systems. in other words, companies MUST maintain valid, up-to-date virus detection systems, fire-walls and other prophylactic devices commensurate to the size of their network in order to minimize the threat of an intrusion. this adds significantly to the cost of maintaining a mainframe or LAN today that was not present when the first networks were set up and the www did not exist. ideally, a company has in place software that is screening all incoming e-mail at source before it is delivered to the employee – however – that is far more costly to run than the desktop version of one program (which needs multiple user licenses to be used in an office, depending on the number of employees). full versions of licensed software, say norton anti-virus, with the firewall, which is what i use, with the subscriptions to updates is not an inexpensive proposition for an individual (i cannot recall … but i think the last renewal was $15 u.s. for virus updates) – imagine that for the entire company. but it is a cost that is there ONLY because of the malicious behaviour of people who want to cause damage. if you want a much more accurate view of what the economic impact is of viruses, i would strongly recommend that you need to factor in the incomes of the major companies involved in protection: symantic, mcafee, etc. there are so many companies that are profiting from this that it is something that needs to be a part of the equation. data without interpretation is often impressive, but not necessesarily correct, or complete. THAT, my dear mr shaw, is the conclusion of an economist. 
sj
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Hi all, > I am just providing a cut and paste of a newsletter I get occasionally. > Since you all use computers on the internet I hope you will find this useful > and interesting. > bye, > Peter — > "If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a > conclusion." > George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950); Anglo-Irish playwright, critic. > – Economic impact of virus attacks over the last few years – > Oxygen3 24h-365d, by Panda Software (http://www.pandasoftware.com) > Madrid, December 28, 2001 — Computer Economics has published -at > http://www.computereconomics.com/cei/press/pr92101.html- the results of a > report on the economic impact of virus attacks worldwide. > According to Computer Economics, incidents that have occurred since the > appearance of the ‘Love Letter’ virus have had less economic impact, mainly > because of the automation of the virus removal process since that massive > attack. > This report was carried out by Michael Erbschloe, Vice President of Research > at Computer Economics, who believes that cyberterrorism is a serious threat > to e-commerce and Internet applications in government, education, and > business. > The cyber attack index reported by Computer Economics shows the relative > impact of specific incidents in relation to the economic losses of the ‘I > Love You’ epidemic in 2000, the attack with the largest financial impact so > far. Those losses amounted to US$8,750 million (10,000 million euros). > Following I Love You, the report lists Code Red ($2.62 billion); Sircam > ($1.15 billion) and Nimda ($635 million). However, other viruses that > appeared before I Love You, like Melissa or Explorer, also caused losses of > approximately $1.02 billion. > The study also covers incidents less costly for companies. For example, > Goner is calculated to have infected some 860,000 computers worldwide -a > small figure compared to other viruses- resulting in an economic impact of > $8.5 million. > NOTE: The address above may not show up on your screen as one line. This > would prevent you from using the link to access the web page. If this > happens, just use the ‘cut’ and ‘paste’ options to join the pieces of the > URL.
–