“The new threats in cybersecurity over the past two years have been collateral damage from the covid-19 pandemic and the acceleration of digitisation it has brought,” said Profumo at the expert congress.

“Cyber attacks have been increasing in number, sophistication and impact. In 2021, the total cost of cybercrime exceeded €5,700bn. One fifth of these attacks were targeted at Europe,” Profumo said, citing figures from the Italian Association for Computer Security (Clusit), which itself used a report by the US expert group Cybersecurity Ventures.

The balance sheet will reach €10,000bn--or €10trn--by 2025, they say.

, it also says there is a shortage of 200,000 cyber security professionals in Europe.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.