FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2023 Report

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) recently published the 2023 Internet Crime Report, revealing that reported losses exceeded $12.5 billion, representing a 22% increase compared to 2022.

According to IC3's annual report, there was a 10% increase in the number of cybercrime complaints received by the agency compared to the previous year. In total, more than 880,000 complaints were filed with the FBI by cybercrime victims in the United States last year.

Over the past five years, the FBI has received approximately 3.8 million complaints related to losses from cybercrime, totaling around $37.4 billion.

Phishing continues to account for the highest percentage of complaints. This is followed by remote personal data breaches, non-payment or non-delivery fraud, extortion, and technical support scams.

Nevertheless, investment fraud caused the highest losses, increasing from $3.31 billion in the previous year to $4.57 billion in 2023. Business Email Compromise (BEC) ranked second in terms of losses, with claims of $2.9 billion in losses.

Other cybercrimes such as technical support scams, personal data breaches, confidence and romance scams, data breaches, impersonation of government officials, and non-payment/non-delivery schemes each resulted in losses of several hundred million dollars.

Regarding ransomware, the FBI received more than 2,800 complaints, with a total loss of approximately $60 million. The most targeted sectors were healthcare, critical manufacturing, government facilities, information technology, and financial services.

"IC3 received 1,193 complaints from organizations in critical infrastructure sectors affected by ransomware attacks. The FBI noted that reports from IC3 indicated that at least one member of 14 sectors had been a victim of a ransomware attack in 2023," they said.

The most active ransomware groups were LockBit and BlackCat, both of which have been recently targeted by international law enforcement agencies.

According to IC3, there is an over 70% success rate in recovering losses from fraudulent money transfers to national accounts. The agency stated that it managed to freeze approximately $538 million out of the reported $758 million in damages.

Source: FBI Says Cybercrime Losses Exceeded $12.5 Billion in 2023 (itsecurity.pt)