Impact of cybercrime

/ cybercrime, security / By

Cybercrime Hurts

Insights from Jildau Borwell’s 20251study on the impact of cybercrime.

Imagine you’re sitting at home, checking your online banking. The next moment: an unauthorised transaction flashes across your screen. Or you’re having a private conversation in your favourite messaging app — only to find it later broadcast, manipulated, or used against you.

These aren’t just annoyances or “technical issues.” They’re acts of cybercrime — criminal offences in which information and communication technology plays a central role.

We may think of cybercrime as impersonal: no physical harm, no forced entry, no visible victim. But as researcher Jildau Borwell (2025) shows in “Unraveling the impact of cybercrime”, that perception is wrong.

Borwell’s research compared the experiences of 910 victims across both traditional and cyber forms of crime — from burglary vs. hacking, to threats vs. online harassment, to sexual assault vs. image-based abuse.

The findings are sobering:

  • Victims of cybercrime often report equal or greater psychological distress than those of comparable physical crimes.
  • In some cases — such as bank-account hacking — victims experienced higher peritraumatic stress (stress during and immediately after the event) than burglary victims.
  • Self-image damage (feelings of shame, exposure, and violation) was significantly higher in victims of cyber property and cyber sexual crimes.

Why Product Teams Should Care

If you develop or sell a digital product — whether it’s an app, a SaaS platform, or an online game — these findings have real implications for your business and your users.

  1. Emotional impact is part of your product risk surface
  2. Digital trust is fragile — and recovery is slow
  3. Security testing protects people, not just data

Cybercrime’s human cost translates directly into business risk:

  • Damaged reputation and loss of user trust.
  • Lower engagement post-incident.
  • Legal and regulatory exposure (especially with consumer protection laws expanding).

By investing in robust security testing, you’re not just proving compliance — you’re demonstrating care. You’re saying: “We protect what matters most — our users’ sense of safety.”

Jildau Borwell’s research underscores a simple truth:

“As long as the victimization impact of cybercrime compared to that of traditional crime is unclear, a nuanced and grounded discussion about the societal consequences of cybercrime is deemed impossible.” (p. 47)

It’s time to bring that nuance into product development. Because security isn’t just about preventing breaches — it’s about preventing trauma.

Want to Make Your Product Resilient?

SealSec’s security testing services help you identify vulnerabilities early, reduce your attack surface, and safeguard the trust your users place in you.

  1. Borwell, J., Jansen, J., & Stol, W. (2025). Exploring the impact of cyber and traditional crime victimization: Impact comparisons and explanatory factors. International Review of Victimology, 31(1), 156-181. https://doi.org/10.1177/02697580241282782 ↩︎

Related Posts