Cyberattacks are all too commonplace. But which areas of the economy are more prone to incidents? To answer this question, the company Atlas VPN has compiled the most significant cybercrime statistics in regard to damages from 2021in order to shine a light on the current cybercrime landscape across 2022. The data has been shared with Digital Journal.
The report shows that:
Blockchain hackers stole nearly $1.3 billion in Q1 2022.
These data reveal that criminals did not take a break despite the drop in Bitcoin prices at the beginning of 2022. Hackers and scammers have made millions of dollars from attacks on numerous crypto-projects and ecosystems. The $1.3 billion stollen came from 78 hacking events.
In terms of different cryptocurrency platforms, the majority of losses resulted from hacks on the Ethereum and Solana ecosystems.
Across the past eleven years, more than $12 billion in cryptocurrency has been stolen. In particular, Decentralized Finance (DeFi)-related hacks continue to rise.
Romance scams cost Americans almost $350 million in 2021.
Perhaps one of the cruellest cyber-scams is conning the vulnerable. According to some findings, victims lost $343 million in the first three quarters of 2021. Perhaps the most surprising discovery is that in 2020 and 2021, people aged 60 to 69 lost substantially more money than any other age group, in relation to people residing in the U.S.
U.S. military personnel lost over $822 million to scams since 2017
It might have been reasoned that those working in the U.S. armed forces would be savvier to cybercrime. However, data suggests that this area of the economy is relatively prone to incidents.
Between 2017 and June 30, 2021, U.S. military personnel lost $822.1 million to various forms of digital crime. Reservists and military families represent the most impacted area of the military, losing the biggest share of the losses, totalling $484.4 million.
Americans lost a record $3.5bn to cybercrime in 2021
Cybercrime has a major impact upon U.S. citizens and their corporations. For instance, cybercriminals are taking advantage of the buzz surrounding cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens, and the metaverse in order to trick people into investing in fraudulent projects. In the first three quarters of 2021, U.S. citizens lost $3.49 billion to cybercrime.
