As reported by the 2013 Europol Serious & Organized Threat Assessment, the “Total Global Impact of CyberCrime [has risen to] US $3 Trillion, making it more profitable than the global trade in marijuana, cocaine and heroin combined.”
This growing cost of cyber crime partially reflects the different laws that define countries’ breach disclosure policies. For example, whereas the United States has mandatory disclosure laws, the European Union has none. European-based companies that have been affected by an incident, including TK Maxx, Loyaltybuild, Stay Sure and CEC Bank, are therefore under no obligation to notify their customers of an incident. This lack of visibility may limit the affected company’s incentives to invest in detection measures that facilitate a timely response…