The FBI recorded more than $4bn in cybercrime costs last year
BEC, ransomware and tech support spoofing were the most popular forms of attack.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
US businesses and citizens lost more than $4 billion to cyberattacks and internet scams over the course of 2020, according to a new report from the FBI.
Based on data aggregated through the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), where citizens can report financial losses from cybercrime and online fraud, the report states that 20% more money was lost than in the year before. Victims also reported more than 2,000 incidents a day on average, up from 1,200 in 2019.
The three most popular forms of cyberattack in 2020 werebusiness email compromise(BEC),ransomwareand customer support impersonation.
Variety of attacks
In total, BEC incidents were reported more than 19,000 times and resulted in approximately $1.8 billion in losses. A comparison with figures from 2019 (23,775 complaints and $1.7 billion in damages) suggests criminals cast a smaller net, but were more successful in defrauding victims for larger sums.
Unlike BEC attacks, the effectiveness of which plateaued last year, ransomware attacks became far more devastating. In 2020, the FBI received a total of 2,747 ransomware complaints, accounting for $29.1 million in damages, versus only $8.9 million the year before. And the overall losses are likely to be far greater, because not all incidents are reported to the authorities.
It’s not just businesses that suffered at the hands of cybercriminals, however. American citizens were also defrauded to the tune of $146 million through tech support scams, with losses growing by 171% year-on-year.
Most of the victims (66%) were 60 years of age or older, the FBI said, adding that the scams are usually joint efforts between overseas call centers and US-based suspects.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
Tweeting about the findings, Former FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit analyst Crane Hassold said it was “insane” that BEC accounted for almost 40% of all last year’s losses.
“Given the fact that ‘spoofing’ is likely a subset of BEC, the total loss number is close to $2.1 BILLION!” he added.
ViaCyberScoop
Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.
Phishing attacks surge in 2024 as cybercriminals adopt AI tools and multi-channel tactics
This new phishing strategy utilizes GitHub comments to distribute malware
Arcane season 2 finally gave us the huge Caitlyn and Vi moment we’ve been waiting for – and its creators say ‘we couldn’t have done it in season one’
