New Delhi, May 20 (IANS): As organisations continue to spend billions of dollars on cybersecurity each year to prevent their businesses from losing sensitive data and important figures, a new report on Monday revealed that the global cybercrime cost has increased 12 times faster than total cybersecurity spending in the past six years.

According to data presented by Stocklytics.com, the total cybersecurity spending has grown by 78 per cent since 2018 and the cybercrime cost soared by 972 per cent in this period.

In 2018, companies and organisations globally spent $102.7 billion on cybersecurity measures. Two years later, this figure increased to more than $150 billion.

As per Statista, the annual spending on cybersecurity solutions and services is to hit $183 billion this year, or 78 per cent more than the figure reported six years back.

Cyber attacks, including ransomware, data breaches, cyber espionage, and phishing, will inflict damages totalling $9.2 trillion in 2024, $1.1 trillion more than last year and a shocking 972 per cent more than six years ago.

"This cost includes stolen money, damage and destruction of data, lost productivity, theft of intellectual property, theft of personal or financial data, post-attack disruption to the ordinary course of business, restoration and deletion of hacked data and systems, and reputational harm," the report mentioned.

Moreover, the report said that global cybersecurity spending is expected to hit $200 billion in 2025 -- 50 times less than the annual cybercrime cost.

By 2028, cybercrime will cost businesses a shocking $13.8 trillion, or 49 per cent more than this year, the report noted.