Ani Petrosyan
Research expert for cybersecurity and cybercrime
Cybercrime and companies in the U.S. - statistics & facts
Cybercrime continues to be a serious threat to companies and by the looks of it, it will be for the foreseeable future. Being the richest economy in the world, companies in the United States become a target for cybercriminals. Approximately nine in 10 chief information security officers (CISO) across the United States thought that their companies were at a risk of material cyberattack.
Cyberattacks, if successful, may have serious consequences, the main one being financial damage. According to the forecast, in 2025, cybercrime will cost the U.S. more than 639 billion U.S. dollars. However, financial losses are not the only worries for board of directors (BOD). Disruption to operations and impact on business valuation were more common concerns.
The number of cybercrime incidents worldwide continues to rise. The United States, one of the largest online markets, is highly impacted by that. By 2028, the cost of cybercrime in the country is projected to reach 1.82 trillion U.S. dollars. This might be a good motivating force for companies to develop better solutions and implement new cybersecurity tools.
Cyberattacks, if successful, may have serious consequences, the main one being financial damage. According to the forecast, in 2025, cybercrime will cost the U.S. more than 639 billion U.S. dollars. However, financial losses are not the only worries for board of directors (BOD). Disruption to operations and impact on business valuation were more common concerns.
Common types of cyberattacks targeting U.S. companies
Network intrusion was the most common type of cyberattack U.S. companies faced in 2023. These might include various systems, such as implementing computer worms, launching distributed denial of service (DDoS), or man in the middle (MItM) attacks. As of 2024, nearly six in 10 organizations in the United States were hit by a ransomware attack within the past year. In 2023, over three thousand people nationwide became victims of phishing attacks, while business e-mail compromise (BEC) attacks impacted nearly 22 thousand individuals.Data breaches in the United States
In August 2024, it became public that National Public Data, a data broker company conducting business as Jerico Pictures, Inc. had experienced a data breach incident, which is believed to be one of the biggest in history. The incident impacted every American as well as residents of other countries; 1.3 billion individuals in total. As of February 2024, 52 percent of companies in the United reported loss of sensitive information. Furthermore, in 2023, the 3,205 incidents of data compromise impacted around 353 million individuals in the country. In the third quarter of 2024, almost 94 million records were breached in online data breaches in the United States.Which industries are most cyber-targeted?
The healthcare industry in the U.S. is by far the most targeted by cyberattacks, mostly ransomware, followed by critical manufacturing and government facilities. Ransomware attacks are proven to cause notorious harm to healthcare and other mission-critical sectors, with LOCKBIT being the type of ransomware that targets the sector most frequently.Main cybersecurity challenges for U.S. companies
If managed properly, cybersecurity measures can mitigate and minimize the risks of cyberattacks. However, companies usually face challenges implementing security systems for various reasons. The main obstacle is usually raising awareness among employees. Majority of CISOs at American companies think that their biggest cyber vulnerability is human error.The number of cybercrime incidents worldwide continues to rise. The United States, one of the largest online markets, is highly impacted by that. By 2028, the cost of cybercrime in the country is projected to reach 1.82 trillion U.S. dollars. This might be a good motivating force for companies to develop better solutions and implement new cybersecurity tools.
