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FBI: Cybercrime Losses Amounted $16 Billion in 2024
Friday, April 25, 2025
Additional findings showed ransomware-related complaints increased by nine percent between 2023 and 2024, with Akira, LockBit, RansomHub, Fog, and Play being the most dominant variants.
Commenting, Dr Ilia Kolochenko, CEO at ImmuniWeb and a Fellow at the British Computer Society (BCS), said the most alarming thing about the FBI’s IC3 report is that its numbers are just the tip of the formidable iceberg of organised cybercrime. “A growing number of US companies prefer to silently “settle” with cyber-criminals, especially with those groups that have a good reputation and history of keeping their intrusions confidential after being paid,” he said.
“Sometimes, such payments may be perfectly legal, for example, when no personal data, classified or confidential data of a third party is stolen. Rules may be harsher for governmental entities, as in some states they are flatly prohibited from paying ransom, or for publicly traded companies given that such incidents may be required to be reported to the SEC and publicly disclosed.”
Kolochenko said that with the overall deregulation spirit of the President Trump administration, we will probably see a steadily growing number of organisations that will prefer to silently pay a ransom and forget about the incident.
“In all cases, the final decision to pay or not to pay should be brainstormed with cybercrime experts and lawyers having experience in such matters, otherwise, you are running a sprint on thin ice.” Read Full Article
IT PRO: Ransomware attacks are rising — but quiet payouts could mean there's more than actually reported