"FBI: Cybercrime Reports Saw 'Unprecedented' Rise Last Year, Costing Nearly $7B"

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) collects cybercrime complaints and received 847,376 of them last year, with estimated potential losses totaling $6.9 billion, a 64% increase from 2020.  The total number of crime reports tallied by the IC3 only rose 7%, which highlights the increased costliness of the attacks.  Paul Abbate, deputy director of the FBI, stated that in 2021, America experienced an unprecedented increase in cyberattacks and malicious cyber activity.  The IC3 found that business email compromise led the pack again as the costliest crime, tallying $2.4 billion in adjusted losses in 2021.  Investment schemes ($1.5 billion), romance scams ($956 million), personal data breaches ($517 million), and real estate scams ($350 million) rounded out the top five most expensive reported crimes.  The IC3 also found that cryptocurrency played a more significant role in estimated 2021 cybercrime losses, totaling $1.6 billion compared to $246 million in 2020.  

CyberScoop reports: "FBI: Cybercrime Reports Saw 'Unprecedented' Rise Last Year, Costing Nearly $7B"