FBI: Global cybercrime losses - $12.5 billion in 2023

Losses related to cybercrime complaints will reach $12.5 billion in 2023, up $2 billion from 2022 and more than three times the amount recorded in 2019, despite the number of complaints almost it doubled compared to 2019, according to an FBI report, cited by Statista.

The FBI released its annual Internet Crime Report in April, evaluating all complaints filed through its Profile Center (IC3). According to FBI analysis, reported losses due to cybercrime have increased significantly since 2021.

Even though 2021 only saw an increase of about $700 million in cybercrime losses and the number of complaints increased, the advance in losses from 2021 to 2022 was more pronounced. This suggests that the criminals were able to illegally extract larger amounts of money per violation of the law, notes the cited source.

Most of the funds were lost to investment fraud and the hacking of corporate email addresses, according to the FBI. These two attack vectors were used in about 60% of reported money thefts. While these numbers are already substantial, the actual amounts could be much higher as the FBI can only review cases reported through its own platform.

• USA and UK, geographies with the most cyber crime

Data from the FBI report also shows a clear preference in the geographic distribution of cybercrime: 521,652 complaints were filed from the United States and 288,355 from the United Kingdom. In the US, the most complaints came from California, Texas and Florida. The US also ranked first in money lost to fraud, with $2.1 billion or 17% of the total reported worldwide. Apart from the US and the UK, the countries with a high number of complaints filed were Canada (6,601), India (3,405) and Nigeria (1,779).