According the most recent FBI Internet Crime Report, US businesses and individuals have lost over $12.5 billion because of cybercrime last year, showing a steady 22% year-over-year growth rate. At first glance, the number may appear relatively insignificant, however, it merely represents a derivative of the reported direct monetary losses from complaints received by the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) in 2023.

Most organizations and individuals simply do not report cybercrime incidents to law enforcement for an interrelated spectrum of good and bad reasons, spanning from reputational concerns to vanished confidence in actual capacity of law enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute digital bandits.