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Malware Attacks Give Criminals 1,425% Return On Investment
An anonymous reader writes: Trustwave released a new report which reveals the top cybercrime, data breach and security threat trends. According to their findings, attackers receive an estimated 1,425 percent return on investment for exploit kit and ransomware schemes ($84,100 net revenue for each $5,900 investment). Retail was the most compromised industry making up 43 percent of investigations followed by food and beverage (13 percent) and hospitality (12 percent).
1,425% is ambiguous. It can be read as 1.425% by people who normally use commas as decimal separators. Thousand separators are meant to be used for clarity, but in an international forum they create confusion instead, so don't use them. Digit grouping is an alternative, but doing that in a typographically correct way requires non-breakable narrow spaces. Honestly, if you need help reading a four digit number, maybe reading isn't for you.
Yeah, a lot of people go into crime for money. Human Traffickers make a great return on investment in slaves, for example, and get much less risk of being caught than if you're trafficking guns. It's seriously messed up, but how fast do you think the police would shut down an AK-47 market on the corner as opposed to your neighborhood's center for prostitution?
Bank robbery also pays, but tends not to pay very well. (Not nearly as well as a good engineering job, IIRC, and more likelihood of your bugs getting detected).