In 2024, the most common type of cybercrime reported to the United States internet Crime Complaint Center was phishing, with its variation, spoofing, affecting approximately 193,000 individuals. In addition, over 86,000 cases of extortion were reported to the IC3 during that year. Dynamic of phishing attacks Over the past few years, phishing attacks have increased significantly. In 2024, over 193,000 individuals fell victim to such attacks. The highest number of phishing scam victims since 2018 was recorded in 2021, approximately 324 thousand.Phishing attacks can take many shapes. Bulk phishing, smishing, and business e-mail compromise (BEC) are the most common types. With the recent development of generative AI, it has become easier to craft a believable phishing e-mail. This is currently among the top concerns of organizations leaders. Impact of phishing attacks Among the most targeted industries by cybercriminals are healthcare, financial, manufacturing, and education institutions. An observation carried out in the fourth quarter of 2024 found that software-as-a-service (SaaS) and webmail was most likely to encounter phishing attacks. According to the reports, almost a quarter of them stated being targeted by a phishing scam in the measured period.

In 2024, the monetary damage caused by cybercrime reported to the United States' Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) saw a significant year-over-year increase, amounting to a historical peak of **** billion U.S. dollars. Overview of cybercrime in the U.S. Cybercrime continues to be one of the biggest challenges for governments around the world. In the United States, ****************** and ********* were among the most reported categories of cybercrime in 2024, with over ******* individuals falling victim to phishing attacks. Additionally, data breaches cost the U.S. organizations over ************ U.S. dollars on average as of February 2024. Fraud involving elderly Along with other reported internet crimes, online fraud is continuously growing. Targeting one of the most vulnerable groups, the elderly, cybercriminals show notorious skills in ************************************************************. Furthermore, individuals aged 60 and older, reported falling victims of extortion and personal data breach in 2024.

In 2024, California ranked first by the amount of monetary losses through cybercrime in the United States. Overall, the state had over two billion U.S. dollars of reported losses. Texas was the second by cybercrime losses, reporting around 1.3 billion U.S. dollars in losses, while Florida followed with over one billion U.S. dollars.

In 2023, the most common type of cyber crime reported to the United States internet Crime Complaint Center was phishing and spoofing, affecting approximately 298 thousand individuals. In addition, over 55 thousand cases of personal data breaches cases were reported to the IC3 during that year. Dynamic of phishing attacks Over the past few years, phishing attacks have increased significantly. In 2023, almost 300 thousand individuals fell victim to such attacks. The highest number of phishing scam victims since 2018 was recorded in 2021, approximately 324 thousand.Phishing attacks can take many shapes. Bulk phishing, smishing, and business e-mail compromise (BEC) are the most common types. In 2023, 76 percent of the surveyed worldwide organizations reported encountering bulk phishing attacks, while roughly three in four were targeted by smishing scams. Impact of phishing attacks Among the most targeted industries by cybercriminals are healthcare, financial, manufacturing, and education institutions. An observation carried out in the first quarter of 2023 found that social media was most likely to encounter phishing attacks. According to the reports, almost a quarter of them stated being targeted by a phishing scam in the measured period. Very often, phishing e-mails contain a crucial risk for the organization. Almost three in ten worldwide organizations that have experienced phishing attacks suffered from a customer or a client data breach as a consequence. Phishing scams that delivered ransomware infections were also common for the surveyed organizations.

Cybercrime costs in the United States reached an estimated 452.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. Between 2017 and 2024, this figure has seen a significant increase. According to the latest estimates, this dynamic will continue in upcoming years, reaching approximately 1.82 trillion U.S. dollars in cybercrime costs by 2028.

In 2024, individuals over the age of 60 accounted for the highest number of recorded cybercrime victims in the United States. According to the latest data, more than 147,000 people reported cyber crimes in the year examined. The second-most targeted were individuals between 40 and 49 years, with over 112,000 complaints.

In 2023, individuals over 60 years in the United States accounted for the highest amount of financial losses of reported cyber crime in the United States. People in this age group lost around 3.4 billion U.S. dollars. Despite filing the second highest number of complaints, cyber crime victims aged between 30 and 39 old did not have as high financial losses.

Between the first quarter of 2023 and the third quarter of 2024, the number of records exposed in data breaches in the United States decreased significantly. In the most recent measured period, over 93.7 million records were reported as leaked, down from around 116 million in the previous quarter.

The global indicator 'Estimated Cost of Cybercrime' in the cybersecurity market was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total *** trillion U.S. dollars (+***** percent). After the eleventh consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach ***** trillion U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the indicator 'Estimated Cost of Cybercrime' of the cybersecurity market was continuously increasing over the past years. Ransomware and manufacturing industry Cyberattacks remain a significant challenge for organizations worldwide, sectors such as manufacturing, finance, and insurance were the most affected by these attacks. Among the various types of cyber threats, ransomware was the most frequently detected, accounting for around ** percent of all incidents. The manufacturing industry, in particular, faced the highest number of ransomware attacks, making it the most targeted sector globally. Cybersecurity awareness and investments Organizations worldwide became increasingly aware of the dangers posed by cyberattacks, approximately ** percent of internet users became familiar terms such as with "ransomware." In response to these threats, companies invested more in cybersecurity. In 2024, the average annual increase in IT security budgets was expected to reach *** percent. In fact, for companies worldwide, enhancing the cyber resilience of their cybersecurity teams was the top spending priority in 2023.

A September 2023 survey of American adults found that three in 10 respondents had experienced financial fraud or cybercrime. Individuals between 35 and 54 years were more often targeted by financial cybercrime, with 36 percent stating so. Among the younger generation, individuals between 18 and 34 years, this share was lower, 22 percent.

In 2023, the utilities industry in the United States saw the most significant number of victims of data compromise cases, with around 73 million individuals impacted. Technology ranked second, with 65 million victims. Overall, 353 million people in the United States were affected by data compromise incidents.

In 2023, the healthcare industry in the United States remained the most targeted by cyber attacks, resulting in data compromises. Compared to 2022, the number of data compromise incidents in the U.S. healthcare industry increased more than twice. The financial services sector ranked second, with 744 data compromise incidents, representing a significant increase, too.

In 2023, individuals aged 60 and older in the United States lost more than 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in online investment fraud, an increase from 990 million U.S. dollars in the previous year. This was the cybercrime type, causing the most significant monetary damage to the elderly victims. Tech support scams ranked second, causing the victims around 590 million U.S. dollars in losses. Romance scams followed third, registering nearly 356 million U.S. dollar losses in the examined year.

A September 2023 survey of American adults found that the most frequently experienced type of financial cybercrime was credit card fraud, reported by roughly 64 percent of respondents. The breach of financial data was ranked second, followed by account hacking.

In 2023, investment fraud was the cybercrime causing the most severe financial damage for the individuals in the United States. Overall, victim losses in this category were over 4.5 billion U.S. dollars. Business e-mail compromise (BEC) ranked second, amounting to around 2.9 billion U.S. dollars in reported victim losses. A further 924 million U.S. dollars were reported in losses for tech support fraud victims.

In 2024, individuals aged 60 and older in the United States filed more than ****** complaints about phishing cases. Approximately ****** victims reported incidents of personal data breach. ********* was also frequently encountered by victims aged 60 and older in the measured year. Overall, the number of complaints about cryptocurrency crimes almost ******* compared to 2023.

In 2024, the number of data compromises in the United States stood at 3,158 cases. Meanwhile, over 1.35 billion individuals were affected in the same year by data compromises, including data breaches, leakage, and exposure. While these are three different events, they have one thing in common. As a result of all three incidents, the sensitive data is accessed by an unauthorized threat actor. Industries most vulnerable to data breaches Some industry sectors usually see more significant cases of private data violations than others. This is determined by the type and volume of the personal information organizations of these sectors store. In 2024 the financial services, healthcare, and professional services were the three industry sectors that recorded most data breaches. Overall, the number of healthcare data breaches in some industry sectors in the United States has gradually increased within the past few years. However, some sectors saw decrease. Largest data exposures worldwide In 2020, an adult streaming website, CAM4, experienced a leakage of nearly 11 billion records. This, by far, is the most extensive reported data leakage. This case, though, is unique because cyber security researchers found the vulnerability before the cyber criminals. The second-largest data breach is the Yahoo data breach, dating back to 2013. The company first reported about one billion exposed records, then later, in 2017, came up with an updated number of leaked records, which was three billion. In March 2018, the third biggest data breach happened, involving India’s national identification database Aadhaar. As a result of this incident, over 1.1 billion records were exposed.

In 2023, network intrusion was the most common type of cybercrime attack experienced by companies in the United States, accounting for ** percent of incidents. Business e-mail compromise (BEC) ranked second, with ** percent of data security incidents in U.S. companies. A further ** percent of companies reported having encountered inadvertent disclosure.

Among IT managers in Mexico who participated in a survey in 2019, around one third (33 percent) stated that malicious or compromised websites originated the most significant cyber attack against the organizations they worked at during the previous year. That response was closely followed by emails, deemed the source of cyber attacks against organizations by 30 percent of Mexican respondents. Recently, it was found that more than three out of four internet users in Mexico access the internet on a daily basis.

Out of the 1,569 cybercrime offenses reported in Argentina in 2020, 284 (or 18.1 percent) were frauds. That year, the number of cases of phishing attacks and extortion amounted to 264 (16.8 percent of the total) and 262 (16.7 percent), respectively.