World’s annual damage from cybercrimes reaches $3 trillion — Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, May 26 /TASS/. World’s annual damage from cybercrime is estimated at 3 trillion US dollars, Ambassador at Large at the Russian Foreign Ministry Andrey Krutskikh, the Russian president’s special representative for international cooperation in the field of information security, said.

The diplomat replied affirmatively when asked if he thought that cybercrime and terrorism were closely interrelated. "Of course, they are. For example, cyberterrorism, which is one of the most horrible phenomena, is a totally new kind of crime," Krutskikh said in an interview with the "Kommersant" newspaper.

"For example, the ‘Islamic State’ [a terrorist organization banned in Russia - TASS]," has already barged in the information space and is engaged in cyberterrorism," the diplomat said.

"In addition to that, cybercrime causes colossal damage to our planet. The annual size of damage varies, according to various estimates, from $500 billion to $2-$3 trillion," Krutskikh said in his interview.

According to the ambassador, the information security theme concerns three threats: the military-political use of the content; terrorism and cybercrime. "Some countries prefer the first aspect; others - the second or the third. But honestly, these themes should be considered as a whole," Andrei Krutskikh concluded.

Number of cyber attacks at Russian state internet resources over 70 million in 2015

The number of cyber attacks at Russian state internet resources exceeded 70 million last year.

Krutskikh said that the situation in global informational space in general "has a tendency toward deterioration and even toward escalation, taking into consideration well-known regional developments." "I think that geopolitical condition of the modern world could be described as ‘a war in conditions of peace’ due to peculiarities of the revolution in the sphere of information & communication technologies and methods of their use," the diplomat noted.

He stressed that "this war is far from virtual." "It inflicts real damage. It is waged in perfect combination with maintaining diplomatic relations," he added.

"In particular, the number of cyber attacks is increasing exponentially. Last year the number of harmful influences on Russian state internet resources exceeded 70 million. The extent of cyber confrontation between China and US, for instance, is similar. South Korea also came under sensitive attacks multiple times. While in Seoul, I witnessed one of such attacks - it affected work of important government agencies, media, banking system, Seoul University," Krutskikh noted. He said that "no one is safe from such cyber attacks."