FBI Releases Dismal, Scary 2019 Internet Crime Report

KEY POINTS

The FBI released its 2019 Internet Crimes Report
The Bureau received 467,361 complaints, an average of 1,300 every day
They also recorded more than $3.5 billion in losses to individual and business victims

We’re much less safe online and will continue to be, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Bureau released its 2019 Internet Crimes Report, and things aren’t looking good for American cybersecurity.

In a summary of the findings that cover a year’s worth of internet crime complaints to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the Bureau reports receiving 467,361 complaints, an average of 1,300 every day. They also recorded more than $3.5 billion in losses to individual and business victims.

The most frequently reported complaints were phishing and similar ploys, non-payment/non-delivery scams, and extortion. The most financially costly complaints involved business email compromise, romance or confidence fraud, and spoofing, or mimicking the account of a person or vendor known to the victim to gather personal or financial information.

IC3 Chief Donna Gregory lauded the relative stability in new types of fraud complaints, but was visibly concerned by the increasing craftiness of cyber assassins. “Criminals are getting so sophisticated,” Gregory said. “It is getting harder and harder for victims to spot the red flags and tell real from fake.”

Business email compromise saw one of the largest upticks in reporting from 2018. In 2019, IC3 recorded 23,775 complaints about BEC, which resulted in more than $1.7 billion in losses.

On the heels of such staggering numbers, the FBI was quick to point out the importance of increased reporting, saying that it “plays a vital role in the FBI’s ability to understand our cyber adversaries and their motives, which, in turn, helps us to impose risks and consequences on those who break our laws and threaten our national security,” said Matt Gorham, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division. “It is through these efforts we hope to build a safer and more secure cyber landscape.”

Yesterday NPR reported that Chinese hackers were charged in the alleged cyber-theft of 145 million Americans' data.