The Cincinnati office of the FBI is again warning of cyber threats. The latest statistics in the Internet Crime Report show more and more criminals are using the internet to steal money from individuals, businesses and organizations.
“The threat still exists, and we see more attacks on an annual basis, more monetary loss on an annual basis,” says Cincinnati FBI Special Agent in Charge Will Rivers. “As we educate, I think we are receiving more tips so we better understand the threat.”
Rivers says the most common threats are phishing, vulnerable software, compromised credentials and remote network access.
He suggests workforce education, updating software, changing passwords and two-factor authentication.
Learning about hacks helps the FBI go after the criminals and prevent future attacks. But sometimes it’s hard to get information from businesses.
“There’s always some element of fear, embarrassment sometimes, with people reporting crime in general. I think that’s a real possibility, especially on the corporate side,” says Rivers.
Statistics from IBM show:
- 83% of organizations have had more than one breach
- The average cost of a data breach is $9.44 million in the U.S.
- It takes an average of 277 days to identify there has been a breach
The FBI says most hackers are overseas and hard to catch.
Ohio has been hit hard. In 2021 it was seventh in the number of complaints with 17,000, and 13th in money lost at $133 million.
