2016 Cybercrime Reloaded: Our Predictions for the Year Ahead

A Look Back at Cybercrime in 2015

Cybercrime in the past 12 months has been nothing short of epic. Never before have we borne witness to the magnitude or sophistication of online crime as we did in 2015.

In the 2015 Cost of Data Breach Study by IBM and the Ponemon Institute, the average total cost of a data breach increased from $3.52 million in 2014 to $3.79 million. Another study said cybercrime will become a $2.1 trillion problem by 2019. That’s only three years away, and judging by the way things are going, we might get there sooner than we ever imagined.

Early in the year, IBM Security forecasted some trends we expected to see in 2015. They included:

•         Cybercrime breaking borders;
•          Rising card-not-present (CNP) fraud;
•          An escalation in the sophistication of mobile threats;
•          Wide use of anonymity networks and stronger encryption;
•          Burgeoning fraud methods for new payment schemes; and
•          Biometrics becoming a target.

These predictions not only materialized, but actually exceeded the forecast. We expect things to get very intense in 2016 as more organized crime groups step up their presence in the digital realms.

Predictions for 2016

Read our prediction roundup, covering financially motivated cybercrime for the year ahead, here.