I don't want to belittle the impact of cyber-crime, but this $105 Billion number is just fabricated to make the problem look large. On the other hand, the numbers for drug trade are basically an estimated amount of drug sales.

Drug numbers are *real* numbers. They still may not be accurate, but at least they represent the summation of finite transactions - like the global automobile trade, or the global whale oil trade. It is a sales number.

Cyber crime is a 'damages' number. Like the woman that spilled hot coffee on her leg and sued McDonalds for several million dollars in 'damages'... and at least she had a specific amount of damages ruled in her favor. The trumped up cyber-crime numbers... along with the RIAA numbers... are just manufactured because it is handy to provide very large numbers if you are on the side of the people producing the numbers.

What I would like to see is how many $$s were actually phished last year? How much did the Nigerians actually rake in by claiming to be my/your/her/his brother in law or trusted barrister?

Sweet jesus! Now I'm going to need tiny hydrogen-based fuel cells to power my beowulf cluster of electronic papers. I think I shall call such a collection a "notepad."