Putting a price on cyber attacks

A member of the South Korean national congress has claimed that clearing up after a series of attacks from the north has cost the country 500 million dollars. This total is split over several years, however 470 million of it was caused by the most recent series of attacks, running from March to June this year. This is presumably fall out from the attacks that wiped computers at a range of South Korean companies.

Its not clear how these figures were arrived at, or who picked up the cost – if it was government or the affected companies? It is certainly unusual though to hear such a precise, and large, figure associated with cyber attacks. Quantifying the cost of security breaches is challenging, both for companies and on the national level. Publicly claiming half a billion dollars worth of damages is certainly a good start for making a case for more funding. South Korea already takes cyber security seriously – it will be interesting to see what the response by Seoul is to the latest hostilities from the north given this price tag.