On March 22, 2022, the FBI published its annual report on the state of cybercrime in the world. We can read in this study that crimes on the Internet will have cost €6.3 billion ($6.9 billion) in 2021. That’s 2 billion euros more than in 2020.
An increase of +81% compared to 2019
Overall, the report identified 847,376 complaints for “crimes on the Internet” in 2021. According to the FBI, this represents a 7% increase from 2020, but a staggering 81% jump from 2019. Three main types of crimes were reported: phishing scams, non-payment/ non-delivery and personal data breaches. Over the years, cybercriminals have become more professional and refined their methods.
Study: There were 9.75 million DDoS attacks in 2021
A few weeks ago, the Crypto Crime Report 2022, was reporting on the state of ransomware in 2021. The company estimates that over the past year, 652 million euros were paid as ransoms (including 582 million euros in cryptocurrency), after a ransomware attack. A drop of water on the 6.3 billion euros lost by the victims of cybercriminals in 2021, but still. The FBI explains that this peak for two years has a direct link with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cybercrime on the rise with Covid-19
The increase in working from home and virtual meetings has contributed to this increase in cybercrime. In 2020, the FBI had even received 28,500 complaints about criminal activity on the Internet specifically related to Covid-19. Although we are likely emerging from a pandemic crisis, the FBI believes that cybercrime may continue to increase. In 2021, the FBI counts 3,729 complaints about ransomware and a loss of €44.2 million.
Some sectors are more affected than others. The most affected are health, financial services, technological services, government infrastructure. The least affected are the energy, emergency services and defense infrastructure sectors. In fact, this represents 2,300 complaints on average daily. The FBI also gives some details on the sketch of the victims. People aged 60 and over are the most affected (92,371 victims and a total of 1.5 billion euros lost). Canada, India, Australia and France are the four most affected countries.