Cybersecurity in the Perspective of Internet Traffic Growth

Abstract

Private and public concern about digital security, cybercrime and data privacy is growing the last few years. If Internet-related markets are flexible enough to cope with security concerns, given time, one would expect that - per unit of Internet traffic - the number and costs of cybersecurity incidents fall over time. This paper is a first attempt to assess empirically whether overall Internet traffic growth has grown faster than the number of cybersecurity incidents. The conclusion is that, overall, the Internet has over time has become a safer place when measured by the number of security incidents per unit of transmitted data. The implication is that the current surge in reported cyberincidents is primarily driven by the growth in scale and pervasiveness of Internet communication exchange. There are a number of caveats that should be taken into account, but for this more consistent and reliable cybersecurity statistics would be required than are available at present.

Keywords: Internet traffic, cybersecurity, timetrend Internet safety

JEL Classification: D8 H56 L86