Michigan Victims of Cybercrime Lose Almost $15,000 on Average, Study Reveals Ahead of Christmas

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Article courtesy of SSL Dragon.

• Michigan victims of cybercrime lose an average of $14,806 to cybercriminals a year, which equals an estimated 18.63% of the state’s median annual household income.
• Nationally, Oregon victims of cybercrime lose the highest proportion of their income to cybercriminals, at 72.51% of income on average.
• California suffered the largest total cybercrime loss, with over $2.5 billion in losses in one year. 

A study by the SSL certificate experts, SSL Dragon, has revealed where Americans are hit hardest financially by cybercrime.

The analysis examined cybercrime data across all 50 states from the Internet Crime Complaint Center and the U.S. Census Bureau, identifying vast regional differences in both the frequency of attacks and their financial impact on victims across the U.S.

The average loss per victim in each state was calculated against the median annual household income by state, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). This revealed the percentage of median income that victims in each state lose to cybercrime per year.

Table: Michigan cybercrime findings and national ranking for loss per victim compared to the state’s median annual household income

The findings revealed that Michigan victims of cybercrime lost an average of $14,806 in the year analyzed. This is equal to an estimated 18.63% of the Michigan median annual household income, ranking the state 35th in the nation based on the proportion of income lost. In total,16,296 Michiganders lost over $241 million to cybercriminals.

Table: The 10 states with the highest cybercrime loss per victim compared to the state median annual household income

Oregon was revealed as the most financially devastating state for cybercrime victims, with an average loss of $65,045 per victim, equaling a huge 72.51% of the median annual income. Over the year analyzed, it was identified that Oregon suffered an overall loss of more than $586 million across 9,013 victims.

Wyoming victims of cybercrime faced the second-highest average losses nationally at an estimated 40.15% of median annual income. It was revealed that Wyoming experienced a total annual loss of $43.5 million from 1,377 victims, which is $31,592 per victim on average.

Mississippi ranked third with victims losing an average of 38.2% of their annual income, at $21,387 per victim. The state’s total cybercrime losses reached $65.6 million, with a total of 3,068 residents falling victim to cybercrime in the year analyzed.

Fourth is Nevada, where victims were revealed to lose an average of 31.18% of their annual income to cybercrime in the last year. Overall, the state’s residents lost nearly $270 million to cybercriminals, with the 10,726 victims losing an average of $25,130 each.

New Mexico completed the top five states with average losses of $19,727 per victim, which is an estimated 30.76% of the state’s median annual income. The state saw total cybercrime losses of $76.6 million across 3,884 reported victims.

New York ranks sixth, where victims were revealed to lose an average of 28.54% of their annual income at $24,782 lost per victim. Over the period studied, 36,479 residents were victimized by cybercrime and lost a total of $904 million.

North Dakota placed seventh among the states where residents have lost the highest proportion of their annual income to cybercriminals. It was revealed that North Dakota victims of cybercrime faced average losses of 27.98% of the state’s median annual income, at $24,641 per victim. This is calculated across 886 victims, with a total cybercrime cost of more than $21.8 million.

Florida ranked eighth with average losses of $20,545 per victim, which is an estimated 27.17% of the state’s median annual income. In one year, 52,187 residents fell victim to cybercrime, losing a total of over $1 billion.

New Jersey took ninth place, with average losses of $27,710 per victim, equaling 26.77% of New Jersey’s median annual income. Over the year analyzed, the state suffered a total financial loss of $435 million from 15,702 victims.

Texas ranked tenth among the states where victims lose the highest proportion of their annual income at 26.59%. On average, the loss per victim was revealed to be $21,669, with 62,376 Texans falling victim in 12 months, losing $1.35 billion in total.

Roman Munteanu, CEO and Founder of SSL Dragon, said:  

“The steep rise in financial losses to cybercrime across the country is alarming. Therefore, with our study, we aimed to find any regional patterns in targeting. The findings suggest that criminals may be executing more sophisticated, higher-value attacks in states like Oregon and Wyoming, while conducting higher volumes of smaller-value scams in states like Alaska and Indiana.

“Even more concerning is that these figures only represent reported crimes, and the actual financial impact is likely substantially higher.

“With increasing financial losses to cybercriminals, the importance of cybersecurity awareness and protective measures is more important than ever before. Everyone, from individuals to businesses, should always remain vigilant and take steps such as implementing strong passwords, enabling two-factor authentication, and maintaining updated security software. These are just a few essential steps everyone should take to help stay protected.”

Methodology:  

Data on cybercrime counts and loss rates were gathered from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) annual report. The populations for each state were sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau population estimates. For each state, the total victims, total losses, and the losses per victim were calculated. The average loss per victim was then compared to the median annual household income by state from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.