Article in ssrn electronic Journal · July 015 doi: 10. 2139/ssrn. 2634590 citations 32 reads 1,108 author: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects

Figure 13: Post-breach Response Costs
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Cost per 1,000,000,000 US Dollars 
Average Post-breach Response Cost 
Average Post-breach Response Cost per 1,000,000,000 Dollars (McKinsey) 
Average Post-breach Response Cost per 1,000,000,000 Dollars (Boston Consulting Group) 
Linear (Average Post-breach Response Cost) 
Linear (Average Post-breach Response Cost per 1,000,000,000 Dollars (Boston Consulting Goup)) 
Figure 14: Lost Business Costs
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Cost per 1,000,000,000 US Dollars 
Average Lost Business Costs
Average Lost Business Costs per $1,000,000,000 (McKinsey) 
Average Lost Business Costs per $1,000,000,000 (Boston Consulting Group) 
Figure 14 looks at the costs that firms need to endure due 
to lost business after they have been subject to a data 
breach. All three sets of numbers show a declining trend 
in terms of the lost business costs, which could suggest 
consumers are getting used to data breaches as a part of 
business in the digital age or that businesses are becoming 
more adept at managing the public relations side of data 
breaches. Running a comparison of the rate at which the 
costs have declined shows again that the absolute numbers 
depict a comparatively worse environment compared to 
the normalized trends. For example, in absolute terms, the 
lost business cost due to cyber attacks faced by firms in 
2008 was $4,592,214. By 2013, that number had declined 
to $3,324,959. The percentage change in the absolute 
numbers amounts to a decrease of 27.6 percentage points. 
The numbers normalized around the Boston Consulting 
Group’s estimates for the Internet economy fell from 
$2,306.74 per billion in 2008 to $1,358.51 per billion in 
2013. This change amounts to a decrease of 41.1 percentage 

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GLOBAL CyBERSPACE IS SAFER THAN yOu THINk: REAL TRENdS IN CyBERCRIME 
ERIC JARdINE • 17
points. Once again, the normalized numbers point to a 
situation where the lost business costs suffered by firms 
are improving faster than the costs as they are suggested 
by the absolute numbers.