Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 08/2013

The Economic Impact of Cybercrime and Cyber Espionage

James Andrew Lewis, Stewart Baker

July 2013

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Abstract

Is cybercrime, cyber espionage, and other malicious cyber activities what some call “the greatest transfer of wealth in human history,” or is it what others say is a “rounding error in a fourteen trillion dollar economy?” In their interim report, CSIS Technology and Public Policy Program Director James Lewis and coauthor Stewart Baker put the costs in the context of the global economy, and lay out their next steps for accurately estimating the full costs of these types of cyber activities.