March 7, 2024 at 09:34AM
The FBI’s IC3 reported a 10% increase in cybercrime complaints in 2023, totaling over 880,000 in the US with $12.5 billion in losses, a 22% rise from 2022. Phishing dominates complaints, with investment fraud and BEC causing the highest losses. Ransomware affected critical sectors, with LockBit and BlackCat being active groups. The IC3 recovered around 70% of fraudulent money transfers.
Key Takeaways from the Meeting Notes:
1. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported a nearly 10% increase in cybercrime complaints in 2023 compared to the previous year, with over 880,000 complaints filed and losses totaling over $12.5 billion.
2. Phishing remains the highest percentage of complaints, followed by personal data breaches, non-payment or non-delivery scams, extortion, and tech support scams.
3. Investment fraud was the costliest in 2023, accounting for $4.57 billion, followed by business email compromise (BEC) with victims claiming to have lost a total of $2.9 billion.
4. Ransomware complaints totaled over 2,800, with losses nearing $60 million, and the most targeted sectors included healthcare, critical manufacturing, government facilities, IT, and financial services.
5. The IC3 reported a success rate of over 70% in recovering losses from fraudulent money transfers, managing to freeze almost $538 million of the $758 million reported losses.
6. The most active ransomware groups were LockBit and BlackCat, both recently targeted in international law enforcement operations.
These takeaways highlight the significant increase in cybercrime complaints and losses, the prevalence of phishing and ransomware attacks, and the FBI’s efforts in recovering fraudulent money transfers. They also underscore the ongoing challenges posed by cyber threats to various sectors, including critical infrastructure.