On March 11, 2024 the FBI released its 2023 Internet Crime Complaint Center Annual Report[1] which revealed that in 2023 the bureau received over 880,000 complaints with potential losses exceeding $12.5 billion. According to the FBI, the latest statistics represent an almost 10% increase in complaints compared to 2022 and a 22% increase in losses.
The FBI said it received over 298,000 Phishing and spoofing complaints in 2023. Investment fraud losses rose to $4.57 billion in 2023, a 38% increase from 2022. Crypto-investment fraud losses rose to $3.94 billion in 2023, a 53% increase from 2022. Business Email Compromise (BEC) complaints amounted to $2.9 billion in reported losses, and tech support scams were the third largest type of crime with over $924 million reported losses, the FBI IC3 Report said.
Ransomware continued to be damaging and impactful in 2023. IC3 received over 2,800 ransomware complaints and losses rose to $59.6 million, a 74% increase compared to 2022. In 2023, In 2023 the FBI said it received 2,825 complaints identified as ransomware with adjusted losses of more than $59.6 million. According to the FBI Report, the critical infrastructures most impacted by ransomware were healthcare, critical manufacturing, and government facilities.
Calyptix' home state of North Carolina ranks #13 on the FBI's 2023 list of security and Internet Crime Complaints by state with 12,282. North Carolina also came in at #13 nationwide for the total amount of security and data losses racking up a total of $234,972,238 million in 2023.
The FBI as well as other U.S. Federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) that issued dozens of alerts during the first nine months of 2023. CISA[1] alone issued over three dozen security alerts in 2023. In January 2024, the agency released the CISA 2023 Year in Review Report which highlights its efforts to protect critical infrastructure.[2]
The FBI IC3 Reports over the last several years have detailed how cyber crooks exploit organizations’ use of remote work and virtual meetings which have resulted in a rise in online scams. The FBI noted “…One new technique involved scammers inviting company employees to a virtual meeting and then using ‘deep fake’ simulated audio of an executive’s voice to instruct employees to transfer money to a fraudulent account.”
According to the FBI, “almost all cybercrime metrics have increased dramatically since 2017 —money lost increased by 393% and the overall number of complaints increased by 191%, while reports of phishing — in which a scammer sends an email pretending to represent a reputable company in order to trick the victim into revealing passwords or other information — were up by a whopping 1,178%.”
The takeaway is that in 2024 and beyond, security hacks and data breaches will continue to increase. Hacks are more pervasive, more persistent, more pernicious, and more targeted. ITIC’s 2023 Global Server Hardware Security survey participants also ranked security as the top threat to the stability and uptime of their on-premises, cloud and network edge infrastructures and ecosystems.
[1] Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) 2023 Alerts. URL: https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/alerts/2023
[2] Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) 2023 Year in Review Report. URL: https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/cisa-releases-2023-year-review-showcasing-efforts-protect-critical-infrastructure
