A recently released report provides a glimpse into the true economic impact of the cyber crime wave that has been going on for years.

The 2011 Norton Cyber crime disclosed that over 74 million people in the United States were victims of cyber crime in 2010. These criminal acts resulted in $32 billion in direct financial losses.

Further analysis of this growing problem found that 69 percent of adults that are online have been victims of cyber crime resulting in 1 million cyber crime victims a day.

Many people have the attitude that cyber crime is a fact of doing business online!

Gary Warner, director of computer forensics research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been quoted as saying that the fight against financial cyber crimes is that the criminal complaint has almost disappeared. Even when a police report is filed, it is often “so the bank will give you your money back.”

One suggestion is that there be minimum security settings that cannot be turned-off or lowered to make it a bit harder for cyber criminals.

Others say it is time that users bare the result of their insecure actions and be made to pay for much of the losses.

Local, federal and international law enforcement are ill prepared technically for this challenge and they certainly do not have the trained staff needed for the quantity of cyber crimes we are experiencing.

Have we given up and surrendered to the thieves? It certainly seems like it!

Kevin G. Coleman is a long-time security technology executive and former Chief Strategist at Netscape. He is Senior Fellow with the Technolytics Institute, where he provides consulting services on strategic technology and security issues.