FBI: Business email compromise tops $676 million in losses

Verizon's Data Breach Investigations Report indicates an increase in ransomware while the FBI's Internet Crime Report shows a downward trend, with business email compromise on the rise. Business email compromise continues to outpace ransomware, according to the criminal complaints detailed in the FBI's Internet Crime Report, released earlier this month. The FBI's "2017 Internet Crime Report" compiled 301,580 internet-related criminal offenses with reported losses of more than $1.4 billion, based on information provided last year to the bureau's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Established in May 2000, the IC3 enables victims to use an online reporting mechanism to document complaints regarding internet-related criminal activities. The FBI estimates however that only 15% of victims report cyber fraud to law enforcement. In 2017, business email compromise and email account compromise represented the highest reported losses at more than $676 million, with 15,690 victims; BEC/EAC ranked 10th in terms of the crimes reported. Confidence and romance fraud, $211 million; and nonpayment or nondelivery of goods and services, $141 million; rounded out the top three in terms of losses. Corporate data breach was ranked seventh with losses of more than $60 million. While criminal complaints of BEC increased in 2017 from the previous year, ransomware attacks reported to the FBI dropped, despite the global outcry over damaging attacks from NotPetya, WannaCry, Locky and other malware. The FBI received 12,005 BEC and EAC complaints in 2016 representing losses of more than $360 million.