Cybercrime: The World’s Fastest-Growing Criminal Economy

19th December 2025

If cybercrime were measured as a national economy, it would rank as the third-largest in the world, behind only the United States and China.
Global cybercrime is predicted to hit £4.7 trillion in damages during 2021, placing it ahead of nearly every sovereign GDP on the planet.

According to Cybersecurity Ventures, worldwide cybercrime losses are set to rise 15% per year, reaching an estimated £8.3 trillion annually by 2025 — up from around £2.4 trillion in 2015. This represents:

The largest transfer of economic wealth in history
A direct threat to global innovation and investment
Financial destruction far exceeding annual natural disaster damage
A criminal economy more profitable than the global illegal drug trade combined

These forecasts are based on historical attack trends, explosive growth in cybercriminal activity (including nation-state–backed actors), and the rapidly expanding digital “attack surface” expected by 2025.

Cybercrime costs include:
data loss, theft of money and intellectual property, fraud, business disruption, forensic recovery, system restoration, and long-term reputational damage.

Cybercrime Is Eroding National Economies — And the UK Is No Exception

The United States — with a GDP of roughly £17 trillion — is hit especially hard.
An FBI cyber-intrusion expert warned back in 2018 that every American citizen should assume all of their personal data is already circulating on the dark web.

The dark web, which is estimated to be thousands of times larger than the visible internet, acts as a global marketplace for:

Malware
Exploit kits
Stolen data
Ransomware services
Cyberattack toolkits for hire

These tools are used to target governments, corporations, critical utilities, and essential public services across the US and UK.

A successful large-scale cyberattack could cripple the economy of an entire region or country.
Ted Koppel’s bestseller Lights Out warned that a strike on America’s power grid is not only possible but likely — with devastating consequences.

Warren Buffett has called cybercrime “the number one threat to mankind,” surpassing even nuclear weapons.

Organised Cybercriminal Groups Are Expanding — With Almost Zero Legal Consequence

Cybercrime syndicates are evolving into multinational, organised corporations.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report, the likelihood of detecting and prosecuting cybercriminals in the US is as low as 0.05%.

That statistic applies similarly across Western nations, including the UK.

The message is clear:
Cybercrime offers high reward and nearly zero risk.

Ransomware: The Fastest-Growing Cyber Threat in the World

Ransomware — malicious software that locks or encrypts data until a payment is made — now dominates the global cybercrime landscape.

Cybersecurity Ventures previously reported:

£250 million in global ransomware damages in 2015
£3.8 billion in 2017
£6 billion in 2018
£8.6 billion in 2019

The projected total for 2021 is £15 billion — a staggering 57× increase since 2015.

By 2021, experts predict a ransomware attack on businesses every 11 seconds, up from one every 40 seconds in 2016.

The FBI has expressed deep concern over ransomware targeting:

Hospitals
Emergency services
Health providers
First responders

These attacks can directly threaten human life.
In one tragic case in Germany, a ransomware incident forced a hospital to divert a critically ill patient, leading to her death.

The Expanding Cyber Attack Surface: Data, Devices & Digital Growth

Since the term “hack” first emerged at MIT in 1955, the attack surface has exploded.

In 2013, IBM declared data to be the defining resource of the 21st century — the modern equivalent of oil, electricity, or steam.

By 2025, the world is expected to store 200 zettabytes of data, spread across:

Cloud platforms
Corporate servers
Government systems
Consumer devices
IoT technologies

Half the world’s data — around 100 zettabytes — will reside in cloud environments by 2025, up from 25% in 2015.

Additional expansion factors:

1 million new internet users every day
6 billion people online by 2022; 7.5 billion by 2030
By 2023, three connected devices per human being
Up to 45 trillion sensors embedded worldwide within 20 years

Cyber threats now extend to everything from cars and aircraft to entire power grids.

Cybersecurity Spending Surges — But Still Can’t Keep Up

In 2004, the global cybersecurity market was worth just £2.7 billion.
By 2017, it exceeded £94 billion, a 35× growth in 13 years.

Global cybersecurity expenditure from 2017–2021 was projected to surpass £780 billion.

Still, cybercrime damages continue to grow faster than cybersecurity budgets.

Healthcare remains especially vulnerable due to outdated systems and the high value of medical data.
The industry is expected to spend £98 billion between 2020 and 2025 on strengthening its cyber defences.

The US federal government allocated £13.5 billion for cyber-related initiatives in its 2020 budget — yet experts say the true need far exceeds that.

Cybersecurity Ventures forecasts 12–15% annual market growth through 2025.
But this still pales in comparison to the 15% annual growth of cybercrime losses.

Small Businesses Are the Most Vulnerable

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) face the greatest exposure:

50%+ of cyberattacks target SMBs
60% of affected SMBs close within 6 months
66% of SMBs suffered at least one cyber incident in the last two years

SMBs often lack resources, cybersecurity teams, and formal digital protection plans.
Ransomware is especially devastating, with costs surging and no sign of slowing.