$7 billion losses due to malware
U.S. consumers lost more than $7 billion over the last two years to malicious software and e-mail phishing schemes unleashed by cybercrooks, according to a study by Consumer Reports magazine.
The figure includes actual money stolen from people’s bank accounts and the cost of repairing or replacing computers hijacked by viruses and spyware.
Consumers face a 1-in-4 chance of becoming a cybervictim, according to the magazine’s fourth annual “State of the Net” survey of roughly 2,000 households with Internet access.