The global cost of cybercrime surpassed $6 trillion last year, as the coronavirus pandemic increased online activity, according to the CEO of the Italian defense, security, and aerospace corporation Leonardo.

“New cybersecurity threats over the last two years have been a ‘collateral damage’ of the Covid-19 pandemic and the acceleration of digitalization it induced,” Alessandro Profumo said at the opening of the Cybertech Europe 2022 conference in Rome.

“Cyberattacks have grown in number, sophistication and impact — in 2021 the global cost of cybercrime exceeded $6 trillion.”

Leonardo said the figures came from Clusit, the Italian association for information security, which had cited a report from US group Cybersecurity Ventures.

Clusit estimated a loss of $1 trillion in 2020.

One-fifth of the total attacks was directed at Europe, Profumo said, but the continent lacked at least 200,000 cybersecurity professionals.

He told foreign journalists in Rome last month that cybersecurity concerns had grown since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We are noticing additional pressure,” said the boss of Leonardo, which has a specialized branch dedicated to cybersecurity.