India to Lose Rs 20,000 Crore to Cybercrimes in 2025, with Brand Abuse Accounting for Over Rs 9,000 Crore, Warns CloudSEK Report

India is estimated to lose about Rs 20,000 crore to cybercrimes in 2025, as stated by a recent report by cybersecurity firm CloudSEK Report. The survey predicts that phishing scams, brand abuse, and phoney domains will be the general tactics used by cybercriminals this year. It is anticipated that when artificial intelligence (AI) develops further, hackers will employ sophisticated social engineering strategies to conduct fraudulent activities. Notably, it is estimated that brand name abuse alone will have a financial impact of more than Rs 9,000 crore.

Our analysis has shown that cybercrime has caused financial damages of over Rs 20,000 crore, of which Rs 9,000 are attributable to brand name abuse alone. This is the greatest finding. The fact that brand abuse is linked to an astounding 70% of high-value scams and roughly one-third of all cybercrime events should serve as a wake-up call for India, according to Pavan Karthick M, Threat Intelligence Researcher at CloudSEK Report .

The growing economic impact of cyber crimes in India is highlighted in CloudSEK Report white paper, which was published on Friday. It emphasizes how illegal use of trusted brand names for fraudulent purposes has grown to be a significant avenue for exploitation.

Cybercriminals use phoney website names and fraudulent mobile applications in addition to brand impersonation to trick people.

The financial industry is predicted to face the highest portion of these losses, accounting for Rs 8,200 crore, or 41% of the total, according to a sector-by-sector analysis in the research. Government services may sustain financial losses of Rs 3,400 crore, or 17% of the total impact, while the retail and e-commerce industries are expected to sustain a combined 29% of losses.

The conclusions are based on information gathered from 200 firms, which includes 16,000 cyber threat occurrences involving brands and more than 5,000 domain takedowns. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which reported financial losses of almost Rs 11,333 crore in the first nine months of 2024 with a sharp increase predicted in 2025, is another source of official data cited in the article.

CloudSEK Report in Businesses will experience reputational harm in addition to financial repercussions when their names are utilized fraudulently. According to the research, businesses may have to pay Rs 6,000 crore for legal actions, customer compensation, remediation activities, and improvements to security infrastructure.

Individuals are anticipated to be most affected by these losses, though, with personal financial damages likely to approach Rs 14,000 crore by 2025.