The recent data breach at U.S. retailer Target, in which the personal data of at least 70 million customers were stolen, is an all-too harsh warning of the global threat of cybercrime.
Economies, companies and citizens are all at risk from having data stolen and the consequent sudden financial loss, according to analysts.
Ken Allan, global information security leader at professional services firm EY, said there was a growing fear, particularly among U.S. companies, of a "cyber fatality", where the scale of a breach was so damaging, a company failed to recover.
"This is not something that is secondary anymore, this is absolutely mainstream and front-of-mind," Allan told CNBC in a phone interview.
(Read more: Target CEO 'still shaken' by the data breach, vows to 'make itright')
Meanwhile, governments are highly concerned about cyberattacks. The U.K. affords cybercrime the same threat status as terrorism, while FBI Director James Comey has said cyber-attacks are surpassing terrorism as the major threat in the U.S.