On June 22, the Federal Bureau of Investigation presented its annual Internet Crime Report for the twelvemonth of 2016. The FBI analyzed the victim reports at the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) as well as used the information from their database to issue the annual study. It is of import to refer that, according to the Department of Justice’s research, solely an estimated xv percent of the U.S. fraud victims reported their crimes to police enforcement.
The FBI highlighted multiple “hot topics” regarding cyberspace crimes for the twelvemonth of 2016. This included Business Email Compromise (BEC), which resulted inwards the loss of $360 ane 1000 k from victims, currently standing inwards start house inwards the category of nearly impairment caused. BEC is a sophisticated scam targeting companies working alongside international or unusual businesses or suppliers who acquit wire transfer payments at regular intervals.
Ransomware, an emerging “business form” amid cyber criminals, was especially mentioned inwards the report. When launching such attacks, the hackers target electronic devices — to a greater extent than oft than non computers as well as laptops — alongside malware that locks upwards the information of the machines. After the criminals successfully breach the systems of the victims, they require ransom from them. According to the FBI, inwards nearly cases, the ransom is paid inwards digital currencies, such every bit bitcoin. In 2016, the IC3 identified 2,673 complaints connected to ransomware attacks, alongside an estimated loss of over $2.4 million.
Another featured form of cyberspace offense was tech back upwards fraud demanding about $7.8 ane 1000 k from the victims. The scam occurs when the criminals impersonate technical back upwards agents from a figurer software, security, cable or cyberspace company. After the hackers arrive contact alongside the victims, they convince them to render remote access to their devices. Once the criminals accept command over their systems, additional criminal activeness occurs. Multiple companies, including Microsoft as well as Mozilla, alerted their customers on their websites regarding such fraudulent activities.
The IC3 recorded 17,146 cases of extortion alongside losses over $15 million, which occurred using the internet. By the FBI’s description, inwards extortion cases, cyber criminals “demand something of a value from a victim past times threatening physical or fiscal harm or the free of sensitive data.” The way identified diverse forms of the crime, including denial of service attacks, hitman schemes, “sextortion,” regime impersonation schemes, loan schemes as well as high-profile information breaches. According to the FBI, cyber criminals oft require the payments inwards cryptocurrencies from the victims, which provides the perpetrators an additional layer of safety since they are slow to transportation merely harder to trace.
Compared to the previous year, the issue of reported cyberspace offense cases increased past times 3.7 percentage inwards 2016, alongside the impairment caused to the victims ascent past times $380 million. Excluding the United States, the transcend 5 countries affected past times cyberspace offense are ranked inwards the next order: Canada (3,722 cases), Republic of Republic of India (2,188 cases), the U.K. (1,509 cases), Commonwealth of Australia (936 cases) as well as French Republic (568 cases). Among the states of the U.S., California had the nearly victims (39,547) followed past times Texas (21,441) as well as Florida (21,068).
The FBI likewise compared the historic menses groups affected past times cyberspace crime. Victims aged higher upwards lx had the nearly impairment ($339 million) as well as the nearly cases (55,043). People betwixt the ages of xxx as well as 39 had the minute nearly cases (54,670); however, they lost solely 56 percentage ($190 million) to the criminals compared to those over 60. Young persons nether the historic menses of xx had both the to the lowest degree sum of cases (10,004) as well as impairment ($6.7 million).
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