A new study conducted by researchers at TorGuard, an online protection company, has revealed the states most at risk of internet crime — and Alaska ranks #1.
The TorGuard team analyzed data from the recently updated FBI Internet Crime Report to produce a list of the states most at risk of a cyberattack. The research team next compared the reports issued in the past three years to point out trends and risk growth levels in the country.
Alaska topped the list for cyberattack risk, reporting 2,338 attacks or 319 per 100K residents — an increase of over 50% from previous year. The state suffered a whopping $31,771,278 loss to internet crimes, averaging $13,589 per victim. The most frequent type of crime that Alaskans seem more vulnerable to is extortion, which has increased 9% since 2022.
Nevada secured the second spot in this study, with 308 cyberattacks per 100K people or 9,893 cases in total. It is worth mentioning that this state held the top position in previous years. However, its current lower rank doesn’t necessarily signify a decrease in cases; rather, it’s due to Alaska experiencing a surge of cyberattacks this year. While this state was seemingly recovering from a massive surge of internet crimes in 2021, the number of cyberattacks still increased from the previous year. Nevada lost $200,995,121, almost double that of 2022. Even though crimes such as personal data breach or identity theft remain the most frequent, they decreased from previous years.
In third position is Delaware, with 2,687 cyberattacks or 257 cyberattacks per 100K people. This state is experiencing a small yet gradual increase in internet crimes, especially in the form of personal data breaches, which have grown by 30% since 2022. Among the most frequent types of internet crimes committed in this state were also tech support scams, which are less frequently found among other states. The total amount of losses as a result of internet crimes in this state summed up to $35,376,770, or $13,166 per victim. On a positive note, it is still more than a $5M difference from last year, which may be a promising indicator for the future.
Arizona, California, Colorado, Washington, South Dakota, Florida and South Carolina rounded out the Top 10 (in that order). The Top 10 states least vulnerable to cybercrime are North Dakota, Kansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, Louisiana, Vermont, Nebraska, Alabama and Idaho (ranked 50 – 41).
Methodology
In order to produce the ranking on this list, this study took into account the total number of cyberattacks reported in each state, as well as their respective population numbers. To get this data, researchers utilized the FBI’s Internet Crime Report. For the ranking to be fair, the study calculated these cyberattacks by a number of 100K residents.
As supportive data, this study also gathered the total amount of money lost to internet crimes and calculated a total average by dividing this number by the number of cyberattacks. Furthermore, this study also gathered data on the most frequent type of internet crimes committed in each state. Finally, the study compared the data from 2021, 2022 and 2023 to point out the differences and trends between these years.