FBI highlights increase in cyberattacks in 2023

On March 6, 2024, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) published its yearly report on cybercrime, based on the figures of complaints recorded by the US justice system. The number of cases rose to 880,000 in 2023 in the United States, up by 10%, in contrast with the slight 5% dip between 2021 and 2022. 

However, the number of police reports tied to cyber incidents only slightly increased since 2020, when US courts recorded 792,000 complaints. Still, the related financial damages have exploded. In 2023, they thus reached 12.5 billion dollars (11.4 billion euros), a 21% increase from 2022, after a 64% increase between 2020 and 2021, and 49% between 2021 and 2022. In three years, total damages have tripled. 

Investment fraud remains the most profitable sector, with total damages of 4.5 billion dollars (4.1 billion euros) in 2023, up by 38%. Cryptocurrency scams account for 89% of the total, or 4 billion dollars (3.66 billion euros).

As for corporate email hacks, they amount to 2.9 billion dollars (2.7 billion euros) in damages. Fake tech support, fake customer service and fake wire scams make up 1.3 billion dollars (1.2 billion euros) in losses. Ransomware is at the bottom of the board, with “only” 2,825 reports and 60 million dollars (55 million euros) in direct losses. 

Quantity-wise, phishing remains the most significant modus operandi in reports, totaling nearly 300,000 (37.5% of all reports), followed by personal data theft (56,000 reports), delivery scams (51,000) and extortion (48,000).