Cybercrime Rakes in Hundreds of Billions of Dollars

Stolen identities bring in almost as much as narcotics

Growing up in the United States, children are continually warned about potential "real-world" crime that plagues only a small number of the population each year. However, more people are now becoming victims of cyber crimes, and there is very little being done to help protect Internet users – and companies routinely targeted.

Increasingly, the looming threat of cyber crime is hitting us at a rapid pace –researchers estimate organized crime groups collected more than $388 billion from identity theft and other crimes in 2011. Amazingly, cyber crimes are quickly approaching the $411 billion industry involving the trafficking and selling of illegal narcotics, according to Rasmussen College researchers.