Colorado is the most likely state to fall victim to cyberattacks, according to security provider Kiteworks, who placed the Centennial State atop its per capita victim losses tally over the last three years.
Kiteworks said that since 2020, total annual victim losses in Colorado were a whopping $104,476,603.
“Despite its mid-sized population of 5,877,610, Colorado experienced the highest rate of cyberattacks since 2017 and has reported 10,776 annual victims from 2020,” Kiteworks said in announcing the rankings.
“Despite Colorado only seeing a moving increase of 3.8% in victims since 2017, the state has faced significant financial losses due to cyberattacks, with a 58.7% increase in losses since 2017, amounting to $104,476,603.”
Compare Colorado’s 5.9 million population with that of California, which calls home to some 39 million people, among them some of the most advanced engineers in the tech business. California logged a total of $657 million in losses on the year, a sizable amount but not a huge gain when compared with Colorado.
Not to be outdone was the Empire State, which researchers said ranked in second in terms of cybercrime, accumulating for an eye-watering $440,673,485 worth of monetary losses between 2020-2023.
“As the fourth most populous state with 19,571,216 residents, New York reported 27,205 annual victims between 2020-2023,” said Kiteworks.
“By contrast, Massachusetts reported one-third the number of victims (8,749) over the same period as New York. New York has seen a 14.4% increase in victims over four years, with reports showing cyberattack complaints up 53% since 2022.”
That represents a 14.4% increase in victim counts over the four year period.
The most profitable type of fraud is business email compromise (BEC). Tricking workers into handing over fraudulent checks nets criminals an average of around $88,350 per heist. Second on the list is check fraud, which nets an average of $27,039, though as the crime is more common it nets a higher gross.
Malware crime is more lucrative, with the average haul coming in at $83,235, but as the heist requires technical aptitude you’re less likely to be able to pull it off with any sort of reliability.
