You may have seen the reports from last week’s RSA conference, with online crime estimates by the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). According to the FDIC:

• Computer scams targeting small businesses cost U.S. companies $25 million in the third quarter of 2009 alone.

• Online banking fraud involving the electronic transfer of funds has been on the rise since 2007 and, in the third quarter of 2009, rose to over $120 million.

• Almost all of the incidents reported to the FDIC "related to malware on online banking customers' PCs."

Security blogger Brian Krebs took these findings one step further, comparing these cyber crime figures to ‘real-life’ crimes in the U.S. What did he uncover? During the third quarter of 2009, traditional bank robberies netted around $9.4 million. “In fact, real-life bank robbers stole a total of just over $30 million in the first three quarters of 2009, just $5 million more than cyber crooks did in the third quarter of last year alone,” Krebs notes in his post.

Learn more in the IDG News and Krebs on Security articles.