In a speech on cybersecurity this morning, President Obama used a figure from a Consumer Reports survey to document the financial impact of cyber crime on U.S. households.

“According to one survey,” the President said in his remarks, delivered to an audience of reporters and cybersecurity experts at the White House, “in the past two years alone cybercrime has cost Americans more than $8 billion.”

While the President did not attribute the figure to Consumer Reports, it’s identical in amount and scope to that found in our unique State of the Net 2009  survey conducted  by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. The figure includes the estimated impact of viruses and phishing over a two-year period, along with that of spyware in the six months prior to the survey, which involved a nationally representative sample of Internet-using households.

In the speech, Obama also summarized his administrations’ planned strategy to tackle cybercrime, and outlined the responsibilities of a new “cyber-czar” who will lead those efforts. Technology Editor Jeff Fox was in attendance at the event, and will be reporting in more detail on the Obama speech later today.
– Paul Reynolds