North Dakota is the U.S. state with the highest risk of cybercrime, followed by Alabama and New York.
This is according to Sprinto, a security compliance automation platform provider, which analyzed the most recent data from the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
South Dakota is the state most at risk of cybercrime, according to the data, with an average loss of $59,960 per fraud complaint. Alabama is the second most at risk state, with an average loss of $57,477 per complaint. New York ranks third, with an average loss of $32,040 per complaint.
The most frequent types of cybercrime are nonpayment/nondelivery, personal data breach, credit card fraud, identity theft and social media.
The top 10 are rounded out by Delaware, Massachusetts, Georgia, Vermont, New Jersey, California and Kansas. Meanwhile, Indiana was found to be at the lowest risk of cybercrime in the U.S., with an average loss of $5,430 per fraud complaint.
When asked why North Dakota and Alabama (relatively rural states not exactly known for their connection to technology or finance) topped the list, a representative from the company attributed it purely to the average complaints per loss being higher. She acknowledged that one might expect New York to top the rankings, but suggested businesses there may have higher security.
The research also found that a personal data breach is among the leading types of cybercrime in most states, as well as nonpayment/nondelivery, extortion and social media fraud. It also found that business email compromise — also known as email account compromise — is the costliest type of fraud, ranking as the No. 1 most costly across 42 states.