Worst-Case Worm Could Rack Up $50 Billion In U.S. Damages

"Although our estimates are at best approximations, a plausible worst-case worm could cause $50 billion or more in direct economic damage by attacking widely used services in Microsoft Windows and carrying a highly destructive payload," said Weaver and Paxson in their paper.

And that boggling economic disaster doesn''t include secondary losses, such as possible impacts on IT infrastructure, but only accounts for loss productivity, lost data, damaged desktops and servers, and repair expenses.

http://www.securitypipeline.com/21401701