Cybercrime, which is the term we usually use to describe both industrial espionage and ordinary crime activities, is in fact the third-largest economy in the world. By 2025, the damage resulting from cybercrime is going to amount to $15 trillion. It grows by an amount of $1,500 billion a year. It is a huge problem. Efforts conducted in this matter are not on par with the damage that is occurring and growing.
Taking into account what the previous witness was talking about, attacks on critical infrastructure especially, which are forbidden by the Geneva Conventions because they attack civilian infrastructure, are growing daily. We have to take nation-state actors into account, especially Russia.
This was what I was trying to bring into force before the Vulkan files. Before, we were just speculating on their capabilities, but now we are certain, and we have confirmation that they are collecting data all over the world. They are compromising systems, power plants, hydroelectric power plants, electricity grids and civilian infrastructure from hospitals to everything else. They are collecting that, scanning systematically and collecting vulnerabilities in one huge, giant database and preparing, in a way, for a black swan scenario.
What I'm really concerned about is that western countries, NATO countries, are not protecting their infrastructure in the manner that they should be. It is a huge problem, and it should be addressed promptly.