Cybercrime cost the Irish economy €9.6 billion last year, including many attacks in Donegal – an increase of 50% on the previous year.
In recent weeks three major Donegal companies have been the victims of ransomware attacks.
Their computer systems were frozen by online hackers unless they paid a ransom.
The new research was carried out by Grant Thornton.
Ransomware attacks alone and the cost of fixing them accounted for €2 billion of that total, the study found, with computer viruses accounting for €1.3 billion and phishing €1 billion.
“Cybercriminals are innovative and opportunistic. This means we also need to be innovative in how we mitigate against potential cyber-attack risks,” said Head of Cyber Security Services at Grant Thornton Ireland Mike Harris.
“Ransomware attacks, for example, were once targeted mainly at consumers but we now know businesses, organisations and governments are the main targets for these types of crimes,” he added.
The last time Grant Thornton produced this report was in 2014 and in that year the cost of cybercrime to the economy was €630m.
