Apparently cybercrime pays. In a new report, cybercrime in the UK is costing the economy £147 billion a year.

Greater London Authority (GLA) Conservatives says that as many as 1.8 million companies in the UK could have experienced a security breach in 2015.

The report goes on to state that between 2014 and 2015, hacking increased 9% among large businesses, and 14% among small organisations. This included hacking increased 9% among large businesses, and 14% among small organisations.

The cost to large business is estimated to be £3.14 million in 2015, which is an increase from the previous year of £1.5 million.

Small businesses are not immune. Losses in 2015 are estimated at £311,000 per business, up from £115,000 in 2014.

London proper, which has a concentration of businesses, is losing about £36 billion per year from its economy.

Some of the more infamous hacks included TalkTalk, HSBC and Sage. Thousands of customer bank account and contact details were breached in the TalkTalk hack. HSBC was hit with a DDoS attack that left the company offline in February. And Sage, the accounting firm, said that the employee details for about 280 companies were accessed by an unauthorised user.

Source: Belfast Telegraph